Finnish e-bike drive system Revonte has filed for bankruptcy and is selling its IP, Tech.EU reported. The startup successfully raised a €2 million Seed round in 2019 but has struggled to secure further funding forcing the decision. The unease in the e-bike market could be a result of the slowdown of sales post-Covid boom but it might also be about time there is some consolidation in the market — for companies like Revonte their hand has been forced in these trickier fundraising times.
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Finland
The number of companies filing for bankruptcy in Finland rose to the highest in 26 years last month as the slowdown in the Nordic economy puts a damper on business activity, Bloomberg News reported. Finland recorded the highest number of July bankruptcies since 1997, with 224 companies becoming insolvent, Statistics Finland said on Monday. Construction industry and other service businesses had the most failed companies, it said.
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According to data collected by Dun & Bradstreet, bankruptcy rates have been on the rise in Finland. However, there are signs of stabilization in some regions, such as Pohjanmaa, Lappi, and Etelä-Savo, where the number of bankruptcies decreased compared to the previous year, the Helsinki Times reported. The cumulative number of bankruptcies in Finland began to deviate from previous years in June 2022, with a 26% increase from the previous year.
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Blackstone Inc. has defaulted on a €531 million ($562 million) bond backed by a portfolio of offices and stores owned by Sponda Oy, a Finnish landlord it acquired in 2018, Bloomberg News reported. The private equity firm had sought an extension from holders of the securitized notes to allow time to dispose of assets and repay the debt, according to people with knowledge of the plan.
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The low profitability of RH Entertainment Ltd’s summer 2022 festivals and the resulting turnover has driven the company into corporate restructuring, Chaoszine reported. On 20 October 2022, the District Court commenced restructuring proceedings against RH Entertainment Ltd. “The restructuring proceedings involved issues that we could not foresee. We had to pay practically all our bills in advance, both at the filing stage and after the restructuring proceedings started.
SAS AB Chief Executive Officer Anko van der Werff said he’s confident the Scandinavian airline will emerge successfully from a chapter 11 restructuring after winning clearance for a $700 million financing package and seeing a rebound in its own performance, Bloomberg News reported. Approval for the Apollo Global Management funding from a US bankruptcy judge is “the biggest and most important news” for SAS and will be “vital” as it seeks to move forward with a new strategic plan, Der Werff said Thursday in an interview in Gothenburg, Sweden.
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Bankruptcy Judge Michael Wiles on Friday approved a $700 million financing package for SAS AB from Apollo Global Management, though he said features of the deal concern him, Bloomberg News reported. The financing, divided into two $350 million draws, will allow Apollo to convert the debt into stock in the bankrupt airline or participate in an equity raise tied to SAS’s eventual exit from chapter 11 protection under certain circumstances. Judge Wiles called the financing “unusual” and questioned whether it was legally viable.
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Finland and Sweden on Sunday announced plans to offer billions of dollars in liquidity guarantees to power companies in their countries after Russia's Gazprom shut the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, deepening Europe's energy crisis, Reuters reported. Finland is aiming to offer 10 billion euros ($9.95 billion) and Sweden plans to offer 250 billion Swedish crowns ($23.2 billion) in liquidity guarantees. "This has had the ingredients for a kind of a Lehman Brothers of energy industry," Finnish Economic Affairs Minister Mika Lintila said on Sunday. When Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest U.S.
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Crisis-hit Scandinavian airline SAS sees savings of $200 million through 2026 from a new collective bargaining deal reached with most of its pilots following a crippling two-week strike in July, Reuters reported. The flag carrier, pressured for years by low-cost rivals and ravaged by the pandemic, in February announced a big restructuring plan, and on the second day of the strike sought U.S. bankruptcy protection.
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Struggling Finnish retailer Stockmann said on Monday it had sold its main department store and head office building in the heart of Helsinki to Finnish pension provider Keva for 400 million euros ($442 million) to pay off debts, Nasdaq.com reported. The 159-year-old retailer initiated a restructuring programme last year to avoid bankruptcy, after struggling for years with debt accumulated from earlier expansions and a consumer shift to online shopping.