Europe

The crisis at Swedish battery maker Northvolt AB contributed to an historically high rate of bankruptcies last month, when the company’s main expansion project in Skelleftea went insolvent, Bloomberg News reported. A total of 821 companies went bankrupt in October compared to the monthly average of 576 over the past 10 years, according to credit reference agency Creditsafe. Several large bankruptcies were connected to Northvolt, the agency said in a statement.

Swiss solar panel maker Meyer Burger Technology AG said its ability to continue operating cannot be assured given its indebtedness and cash burn, underscoring the industry’s troubles as cheaper Chinese modules flood the market, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company saw sales halve in the first six months of 2024 compared to a year earlier, while generating a loss of CHF123.5 million ($142 million) in terms of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Bankruptcies in the construction industry have surged across the eurozone this year, but the Netherlands has managed to keep its figures relatively low, according to new findings from Allianz Trade published this week, NLTimes.nl reported. Between January and August, Italy and Sweden experienced a staggering 35 percent rise in construction bankruptcies. In stark contrast, the Netherlands reported only a 4 percent increase in bankruptcies within the construction sector.

Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said efforts to revamp banking regulation are designed to ensure trust in the nation’s financial center and help it remain a world leader in the aftermath of Credit Suisse’s demise, Bloomberg News reported. “We have to find a balance between competitiveness on the one and the protection of the economy on the other side,” said Keller-Sutter, 60.

Germans are eager to sell hundreds of billions of euros’ worth of goods in Italy, while drinking its wines, skiing its Alps and sunning on its beaches. But in the weeks since UniCredit, a multinational bank based in Milan, swooped in to take a 21 percent stake in Commerzbank, one of Germany’s largest lenders, that fondness has been shown to have its limits, the New York Times reported.

Austria’s top court ruled that a restructuring plan put forward by Signa Prime Selection AG and its creditors was unlawful, pushing the luxury landlord into bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. The Supreme Court verdict follows a months-long court battle over the restructuring agreement adopted in March by creditors of the flagship unit in tycoon Rene Benko’s erstwhile conglomerate. The plan aimed to pay creditors 30% of their claims by appointing a trustee to manage a protracted sale of assets, benefiting from an anticipated recovery in market valuations.

The eurozone’s annual rate of inflation was in line with the European Central Bank’s target in October, increasing the likelihood that policymakers will lower borrowing costs for a third straight meeting, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices were 2.0% higher than a year earlier across the 20-member currency area, a pickup from September, European Union statistics agency Eurostat said Thursday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal last week had expected to book a smaller rise to 1.9%.

Italy's economy minister on Thursday defended his decision to raise taxes on cryptocurrency capital gains as part of next year's budget, despite pressure from some lawmakers in his own party to backtrack, Reuters reported. Giancarlo Giorgetti said savers should make a distinction between investments that finance tangible projects and cryptocurrencies, whose value he said is completely disconnected from underlying assets. "Cryptocurrencies present a very high level of risk," Giorgetti said.

The Board of Directors of Romania’s 2 Mai Mangalia Shipyard (2MMS) has scheduled an extraordinary general shareholders meeting (EGSM) on November 28, aiming to terminate its association with Dutch partner Damen Holding in the ailing shipyard Damen Shipyards Mangalia, Ziarul Financiar reported. State-owned 2MM is the majority owner of Damen Shipyards Mangalia (51%), managed by Damen group (49%) under a contract negotiated by the Romanian government at the time the Dutch company took over the majority stake in the shipyard from Korean group Daewoo.

Esprit Holdings Limited announced the bankruptcy of its two U.S. subsidiaries, adding to insolvency filings in Europe and Asia as the brand struggles to stay afloat, RetailDive.com reported. Both Esprit U.S. Distributions Limited and Esprit U.S.Retail Inc. filed notices of chapter 7 bankruptcy on Monday, according to a company announcement. Esprit U.S. Distributions, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Esprit Holdings, and Esprit U.S. Retail, a direct wholly-owned subsidiary of Esprit U.S.