Headlines

Ireland-based clean hydrogen solutions developer Fusion Fuel Green Plc has filed for insolvency for its Portuguese subsidiary after a USD-33.5-million (EUR 31.6m) funding deal with investor Hydrogenial SA has failed to complete, RenewablesNow.com reported. As advised by the insolvency counsel after paperwork submission, Fusion Fuel has initiated a claim in Portugal against the investment firm and its principal, Norbert Bindner, for damages incurred due to Hydrogenial’s breach of their agreement, a press statement says.

In a still-evolving financial situation, hydrogen fuel cell pioneer Teco 2030 Is facing a financial collapse after a bankruptcy petition was filed yesterday against the parent company, Maritime-Executive.com reported. Earlier it had been reported that its manufacturing subsidiary was facing a bankruptcy petition and demands from the Norwegian Tax Authority after another of the company’s subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy two weeks ago.

Intrum, Europe's biggest debt collector, on Friday said that it had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States in a bid to restructure its debt, Reuters reported. The company has struggled as the pandemic, an energy crisis and two-decade-high interest rates failed to unleash a wave of loan defaults, with concerns mounting over Intrum's net debt, which reached 49.4 billion Swedish crowns ($4.49 billion) at the end of September.

Mexico will transfer 136 billion pesos ($6.7 billion) to state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos to cover debt payments in 2025, according to the budget proposal presented to Congress on Friday, Bloomberg News reported. The driller’s proposed budget for next year totals 464 billion pesos, with an estimated surplus of 249 billion pesos, according to the document. The cash injection will be used to pay debt taken with the market and with banks. Mexico also expects the company’s oil output to reach 1.89 million barrels per day next year, with an average oil cost of $57.80 per barrel.

Korea Zinc, whose management is embroiled in a takeover battle for the world's top refined zinc producer, said on Monday that a government panel had found its lithium-ion battery material technology was subject to export controls, Reuters reported. The industry ministry, which has a committee of experts to review and rule on applications for designating "national core technology", also said the panel had recently granted Korea Zinc's case and notified it of the decision without elaborating.

Greece plans to accelerate the repayment of billions of euros of bailout loans in the latest sign of the country’s economic reversal since it nearly fell out of the euro area more than a decade ago, Bloomberg News reported. Athens will seek to repay at least €5 billion ($5.3 billion) in 2025, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at a Bloomberg event on Monday. The obligations mature from 2033 to 2042. “We’ve been ruthlessly focused on fiscal discipline,” he said in Athens.

The Philippine central bank announced the launch on Monday of an interest rate swaps market anchored to a newly established benchmark rate to enhance bond market trading and liquidity, Reuters reported. The start of IRS transactions follows the recognition by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association of the benchmark - the overnight reference rate (ORR) - which the Bankers Association of the Philippines helped establish.

Argentina’s credit rating was raised two notches by Fitch Ratings, which said it expects the government will make upcoming payments on hard-currency bonds, Bloomberg News reported. Fitch lifted the South American nation’s long-term rating to CCC from CC, eight notches below investment grade and on par with Bolivia. Fitch doesn’t assign an outlook for that rating.

A Singapore oil magnate was sentenced Monday to 17.5 years in prison for fraud and forgery in a case that prosecutors said has tarnished the city-state's reputation as Asia’s leading oil trading hub, the Associated Press reported. Lim Oon Kuin was convicted in May on two counts of cheating the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC) and one of abetting forgery. The court found Lim used forged documents on two bogus oil transactions to deceive HSBC into disbursing credit totaling $111.7 million, in one of the biggest cases of trade financing fraud in Singapore.

Swedish battery maker Northvolt has been discussing the possibility of bankruptcy protection in the United States as one of several options for the cash-strapped company to survive, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Northvolt has in recent months gone from being Europe's best shot at a home-grown electric vehicle battery champion to racing to stay afloat by slimming down, hobbled by production problems, the loss of a major customer and trouble raising more cash.