Finland

After a two-year-long bankruptcy process, Scandinavia’s flagship airline SAS AB is now under the ownership of Air France-KLM and private equity firm Castlelake LP, with former Novo Nordisk A/S executive Kare Schultz at the helm of its new board, Bloomberg News reported. The move comes amid much overdue airline consolidation in Europe in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, and a recent slowing in travel demand. It will also shore up Air France-KLM’s position in the Nordics, a reliable source of active travelers.

The number of companies filing for bankruptcy in Finland continues to climb, with June witnessing a significant rise. A total of 252 bankruptcy filings were recorded, an increase of 13 compared to the same month last year. The service sector remains the hardest hit, accounting for approximately half of all filings, the Helsinki Times reported. This upward trend in bankruptcy filings has been ongoing for over two years.

Pole Bicycles Company has appeared on a Finnish insolvency registry today, PinkBike.com reported. The filing appeared on Finnish legal case database maksukyvyttomyysrekisteri.om.fi on April 17, 2024. As of yet, there is no notice of it on Pole's website or social media, but founder Leo Kokkonen confirmed the news in a message to Rob Ride's eMTB's YouTube channel. Just three weeks ago, Pole announced their Factory Racing team of Dan Slack and Onni Rainio. Based in Finland, Pole Bicycles was created in 2015 by Leo Kokkonen, an out-of-the-box designer and passionate rider.

Finland’s government is seeking an additional €3 billion ($3.2 billion) worth of austerity measures to help fix its deteriorating public finances, according to Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, Bloomberg News reported. Orpo’s pro-business cabinet is convening to its first talks over a four-year budget framework. They’re searching for additional savings and tax increases on top of a €6 billion package outlined in the government’s policy program last year. The Nordic country has run consecutive budget deficits since 2008.

Scandinavian airline SAS said yesterday that a U.S. Bankruptcy Court had approved its chapter 11 reorganization plan, Reuters reported. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Wiles approved SAS AB’s bankruptcy restructuring at a court hearing in Manhattan, clearing the airline to move ahead with a restructuring that includes a $1.2 billion investment from a consortium of bidders, including the Danish government. The deal will provide up to $325 million in value to the airline’s junior creditors through a combination of cash and equity in the reorganized company.

Scandinavian airline SAS said it would file a second amended chapter 11 plan of reorganization with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on Monday and said it had obtained the support of the unsecured creditors' committee, Reuters reported. The company said it expected about $325 million to be allocated to general unsecured creditors as part of the amended plan, consisting of up to $250 million in cash and $75 million in new equity.

The head of Scandinavian airline SAS, opens new tab criticised the European Commission on Monday for taking a "cautious" approach to consolidation in the industry at a time when the EU is adding to the cost of flying, Reuters reported. Anko van der Werff, whose long-struggling carrier is the largest in Scandinavia, listed the European Union's flagship scheme to help curb greenhouse gas emissions as among the reasons why the EU "clearly wants flying to be more expensive".

Finland has experienced an unprecedented number of business bankruptcies in the 48th week of 2023, with 85 companies being declared insolvent. This figure is the highest weekly total since Finland's Asiakastieto Oy began its weekly bankruptcy tracking in 2019, the Helsinki Times reported. According to Jaakko Nors, a product owner at Asiakastieto who specializes in bankruptcy data, by the end of this year, over 2,700 companies are projected to have filed for bankruptcy.

Airline SAS AB is set to complete its US Chapter 11 process by June following expected regulatory approvals in Europe, according to Chief Executive Officer Anko van der Werff, Bloomberg News reported. That means the process is going according to plan, the CEO said in an interview on Thursday after posting fourth-quarter earnings that saw its adjusted pretax loss widen 30% year-on-year. The Scandinavian carrier filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2022, and in October reached a $1.2 billion refinancing deal with a group of investors including Air France-KLM and Castlelake.

Airline SAS AB received approval from a bankruptcy court in New York for a $1.2 billion rescue package that will see Air France-KLM and private equity firm Castlelake LP become owners in the Scandinavian flag-carrier, Bloomberg News reported. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2022, saying it faced a significant decline in passenger demand during the Covid-19 pandemic as well as a series of pilot strikes and intense competition from low cost air carriers.