Finland

A euroskeptic party was in the thick of a tight four-way race after voting concluded in Finland's national election Sunday, raising the chance that it could enter government and disrupt the euro zone's program of bailouts for the bloc's deeply indebted countries, The Wall Street Journal reported. According to exit polls Sunday evening, the nationalist True Finns party, led by Timo Soini, was in third place with 18.7% of the vote. The conservative party of current Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen was in the lead, with 20.2%, according to public broadcaster YLE. Mr.

Furniture manufacturer Thulema filed itself for bankruptcy in Harju County Court today, saying that liquidity problems and difficult market situation makes it impossible for the company to meet its restructuring plan that was approved last October, reported aripaev.ee. The shareholders of Thulema are Finland's Puustelli Group with 29% of shares, BenSov OÜ (18%), Triomentor (35%) and Revalbonus (18%). The three last-named shareholders acquired a holding in Thulema in December 2009. As of April 30, Thulema's liabilities were 40.2 million kroon while assets were valued at 38.9 million kroons.

Ciena Corp was cleared to acquire a unit of bankrupt Nortel Networks Inc. for $769 million after fighting off a legal challenge by Nokia Siemens Networks, Reuters reported. Network equipment maker Ciena trumped an offer by Nokia Siemens and its financial partner, One Equity Partners, with an auction-winning bid of $530 million in cash and $239 million in convertible securities for Nortel's optical networking and carrier Ethernet business.

Officials from four Nordic central banks and finance ministries held a private meeting in Stockholm on Wednesday to discuss their contributions to a $6 billion rescue package for Iceland, the Financial Times reported. The gathering was a strong sign that Denmark, Sweden and Finland are drawing closer to announcing a multibillion euro package of loans after Norway agreed a €500m ($648m, £405m) advance last week. The four Nordic nations have said they are willing to support Iceland but only after it agreed to design and implement an economic stabilisation plan in association with the IMF.