Headlines

The Republic of Estonia-owned Nordic Aviation Group AS (Nordica) and Regional Jet OÜ (Xfly) will cease operations after it was announced the companies will be filed for bankruptcy, Aerotime reported. It had been hoped that Lars Thuesen, the owner of Jettime, could potentially take the companies private but on November 18, 2024, Nordic Aviation Group, which runs Nordica and Xfly, were informed that he would not be investing. “Nordic Aviation Group and Xfly have gone through a challenging path over the past 15 months since the airline began its turnaround process in August 2023.

Sweden’s Northvolt AB hired restructuring expert Paul O’Donnell to oversee its main factory unit, as time runs short for the struggling battery maker to mend its finances outside of bankruptcy court, Bloomberg News reported. O’Donnell, who has helped Thames Water engage with creditors, will become chairman of Northvolt Ett AB, the subsidiary that contains the flagship cell-manufacturing plant in northern Sweden. Northvolt has struggled to raise $300 million in emergency funding, with Bloomberg News reporting on Friday that talks on the package were on the verge of collapse.

The National Company Law Tribunal has directed to initiate insolvency proceedings against realty firm Raheja Developers on a petition filed by flat allottees of its Gurgaon-based Shilas project, the Economic Times of India reported. The NCLT said that Raheja Developers has a "debt due and default" against the flat allottees, who had made their payments and delivery of the units was not on time and referred it for Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP). "The Application bearing...

Fitch Ratings sees an increasing risk to creditors from Southern Water Ltd’s outsize swap portfolio, which is creating liabilities that outrank the claims of even senior bondholders, Bloomberg News reported. The ratings agency downgraded the UK utility to one step above junk status with a negative outlook on Tuesday, citing “challenging funding conditions” and the risk of default should it fail to maintain two investment-grade ratings.

Some lenders to Canada’s distressed condo developers are finding they have little choice but to buy the troubled projects they backed and finish the buildings themselves, Bloomberg News reported. As the country faces its biggest wave of receiverships among real estate developments in at least a decade, lenders are going to new lengths to avoid losses.

For some in the investment banking industry, the UK’s latest proposals to deregulate its capital markets may be a step too far, Bloomberg News reported. In what would be one of its boldest moves to attract listings, Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority has proposed lifting the threshold at which London-listed firms raising additional funds must produce a prospectus — a lengthy document detailing financial performance and potential business risks — from 20% of their share capital to 75%.

It’s “crystal clear” that European Central Bank interest rates will be reduced further but officials shouldn’t rush the process due to uncertainties including rising trade tensions and global conflicts, according to Vice President Luis de Guindos, Bloomberg News reported. “My impression is that we will continue reducing the restriction of our monetary-policy stance over the next months and quarters,” Guindos told Bloomberg Television on Wednesday.

The European Union is one step closer to completing a long-awaited bloc-wide ban on the sale of products made with forced labor, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Council of the EU on Tuesday approved a regulation that would forbid throughout the bloc’s 27 member states the sale of goods made with forced labor either within Europe or outside it. The law now goes to the presidents of the European Parliament and the council for signatures. The move comes more than two years after the commission first proposed a regulation, and as the U.S.

Iceland’s central bank accelerated its easing campaign with a half-point reduction in western Europe’s highest borrowing costs as price pressure is slowing, Bloomberg News reported. Policymakers at Sedlabanki in Reykjavik lowered the 7-day term deposit rate to 8.5% on Wednesday, the biggest cut in more than three years. The decision was in line with the expectations of the north Atlantic nation’s largest banks, Islandsbanki hf and Landsbankinn hf, as well as the central bank’s survey of market participants.