Denmark’s plan to tax agriculture emissions will lead to rising impairment charges for some of the nation’s financial institutions but won’t threaten financial stability, the central bank in Copenhagen said, Bloomberg News reported. A few “medium-sized” banks are most exposed to a higher risk of losses from loans to farmers, who “already have a vulnerable economy and must pay the additional tax for their CO2 emissions,” Nationalbanken said in a financial stability report on Tuesday.
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Annual U.K. shop-price deflation lost steam in November, driven by higher fresh-food prices on increased winter-related costs, while retailers’ additional costs next year suggest the end of falling inflation, a report said, the Wall Street Journal reported. Prices at U.K. stores decreased 0.6% on year in November, up from deflation of 0.8% recorded in the previous month, the report by NielsenIQ and the British Retail Consortium showed Tuesday. This is the first time in 17 consecutive months that inflation was higher than the previous month.
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Advent International is considering reviving the sale of Dutch medical supplier Mediq as the private equity firm looks to cash out from the business, Bloomberg News reported. The US buyout firm is speaking to potential advisers and could seek a valuation of about €1 billion ($1.1 billion) for Utrecht-based Mediq, the people said. An auction process could be launched in the first half of next year, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Deliberations are preliminary and Advent could still opt to keep the asset for longer, the people said.
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For Northvolt AB, the Swedish startup that became a poster child for Europe’s electric-driving future, the route to collapse started in June when BMW AG canceled a multi-billion-dollar order, Bloomberg News reported. Back then, few saw the significance of the move, which effectively started a countdown that would culminate in a Chapter 11 filing less than six months later. Northvolt scrambled to keep the financing flowing, but as Germany’s car industry fell deeper into its own crisis, it became clear orders would dry up.
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The French government offered to buy Atos SE’s advanced computing assets for as much as €625 million ($653 million) after an earlier offer from the state expired, Bloomberg News reported. The non-binding bid gives the business an enterprise value of €500 million and may include additional payments based on future earnings, the company said in a statement on Monday. The offer, which expires in May, includes Atos’s artificial intelligence business as well as its supercomputers, which are used by researchers, the nuclear power industry and the military.
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The sports equipment manufacturer Le Coq Sportif has been placed under judicial restructuring proceedings by the Paris Commercial Court, FashionUnited.uk reported. "Le Coq Sportif is relying on this procedure to respond to the challenges facing the brand while protecting its 330 employees and hundreds of indirect jobs," parent company Airesis said on Friday. The troubled company said in October that it was looking for "financing solutions".
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