Finland's Talvivaara Mining Company said on Friday it may face bankruptcy following the Finnish government's decision to pull back from a deal relating to a troubled nickel mine in northern Finland. Talvivaara is the former owner of the mine which leaked waste water in 2012 and faced serious production problems, prompting the government to take control of it last year in a bid to protect local jobs and the environment.

Finland's Santa Claus Office has been declared bankrupt over unpaid taxes after a sharp drop in visits from recession-hit Russians, once the centre's best customers. But Managing Director Jarmo Kariniemi said he believed the company, which employs around 20 people, could yet avoid closure over its 200,000 euro ($223,980) tax bill. "We have one more week to come up with the money. I'm confident that we can handle this," said Kariniemi, whose firm offers the chance to be photographed with Santa for a fee.

The Finnish government plans to inject a further 112 million euros ($126 million) into restructuring troubled nickel mine Talvivaara after a potential buyer failed to arrange financing, a minister said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Talvivaara's listed parent company is going through debt restructuring while its key subsidiary, which owns the mining assets, last year applied for bankruptcy protection following a drop in nickel prices, repeated production disruptions and environmental damage.

Tecnotree, a small Finnish firm that offers IT services to telecom operators, on Thursday said it will apply for debt restructuring due to its prolonged financial problems and delayed payments from projects in Latin America. "Significant part of the company's customers operate in countries where central banks restrict the availability of currency, for which reason the payments to the company are delayed," it said in a statement. The company's biggest customer groups are American Movil in Latin America and MTN Group in Africa.

Finland has emerged as the biggest stumbling block to negotiating a new bailout deal with an incoming Greek government, telling its eurozone partners that it will not support debt forgiveness and is reluctant to back another extension of the €172bn rescue, the Financial Times reported. In an interview, Finland’s prime minister said he would give a “resounding no” to any move to forgive Greece’s debts and warned that a new government in Athens would have to stick to the terms of the existing bailout.

Cracks are beginning to appear in the vaunted Nordic model. The four main Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden – still grace the top of most global rankings for happiness, competitiveness, the best place to be a woman and even the best place to be born. That has won them a legion of admirers, from Bill Gates to Scottish nationalists and The Economist, the news magazine, who marvel at the Nordic region’s ability to sustain big welfare systems and competitive economies.

Finnish nickel company Talvivaara said a subsidiary that holds all of the group's mining assets will apply for bankruptcy protection after failing to raise financing, Reuters reported. Talvivaara last year halted operations at its sole mine in northern Finland and started a search for investors after a drop in nickel prices, repeated production disruptions and environmental damage. The parent company said on Thursday it would continue to process ore for now while it aimed to secure new financing to buy back mining subsidiary Talvivaara Sotkamo.

Finnair Group reported a net profit of €16.6 million for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, down 38.3% from €27 million for the same period last year, Air Transport World reported. Operating profit was down 40.7% for the period, to €23.6 million from €39.8 million in the year-ago period. The airline group attributed the disappointing performance to the strengthening of the euro against several revenue currencies, the ongoing weakness of the Finnish and eurozone economies, tumbling unit revenues, and declining cargo revenues.

Finnish nickel miner Talvivaara lacks the long-term financing it needs to avoid bankruptcy, it said on Tuesday after an administrator proposed an eight-year restructuring plan that includes slashing its debts by up to 99 percent, Reuters reported. Talvivaara listed to great fanfare in London in 2007 when nickel peaked at around $51,000 per tonne. But nickel prices have more than halved, and hurt by repeated production disruptions and environmental damage, the company last year suspended its mining operations and started a court-led debt restructuring process to avoid bankruptcy.

Finland's budget deficit will be so large in 2015 that it will violate the European Union's budget-balance rules designed to fix the euro zone's rickety public finances, the highest-ranking civil servant at Finland's Ministry of Finance said Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported. A breach of these binding rules would mark a humiliation for Finland which only a few years ago was classified as a fiscally responsible euro area member and thus a natural ally of Germany, Europe's economic and political powerhouse.