Netherlands

According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), there was an increase of 37 companies that were declared bankrupt in June compared to a month earlier. This is a rise of 11 percent, the NL Times reported. According to CBS, the number of bankruptcies has been trending upward for the last two years. In the first six months of 2024, 40 percent more companies were declared bankrupt than in the same period a year earlier. The number of bankruptcies was also higher than in the same time period in the three years before the coronavirus, CBS reported.
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Dutch football club Vitesse moved closer to bankruptcy on Monday with the announcement that their likely financial savior, investor Guus Franke, has pulled out of talks to rescue the club, the Telegraaf, the NL Times reported. The club had until the end of Monday to submit its supporting material to the KNVB to appeal the Dutch football association's decision to withdraw Vitesse's professional license. Vitesse said it had found an ideal partner in Franke, the founder of international private equity firm Axiom Partners.

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Family doctor center Co-Med will file for bankruptcy this week, the attorney for the chain of general practitioner offices confirmed, the NL Times reported. Co-Med has been in dire straits for some time, and health insurers recently canceled their contracts with the chain, partly because their doctors have not been available to provide healthcare for the chain's patients. Attorney Georges van Zeijl has only been involved in the case for a short time, but said he has "noted with some surprise" the speed with which Co-Med has been "pushed to the abyss" in recent weeks, he said.

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Scandinavian airline SAS posted a second-quarter pretax loss that more than doubled from a year earlier on Thursday, while pledging to complete its restructuring this summer, Reuters reported. The company's chapter 11 plan of reorganisation was approved in March. It filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection in 2022 after years of struggle with high costs coupled with low customer demand, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. "We look forward to emerging as a competitive and financially stronger airline with a stable equity structure," CEO Anko van der Werff said in a statement.
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The curators managing the VanMoof bankruptcy administration are in talks with a major financier of the e-bike brand about an agreement that would allow a group of disadvantaged customers to get their money back, NL Times reported. The lender promised VanMoof that customers who ordered bikes shortly before the bankruptcy would be compensated in the event the company went bust. This arrangement is for customers who ordered the SX4 and SA5 e-bike models, but never received them.
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The number of bankruptcies to occur in the Netherlands this year will probably rise, credit insurer Allianz Trade predicts, NLTimes.nl reported. "No other European country has experienced an increase so quickly," says Johan Geeroms, the risk director for the Benelux region. "The increase in bankruptcies is a serious warning sign. Last year, we called the 52% increase a catch-up from coronavirus, but an addition of 31% will join them this year," he added.
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