Netherlands

The German and Dutch central banks on Friday posted multi-billion euro losses for 2023 and predicted more financial pain ahead, suggesting that they are unlikely to pay dividends into state coffers for years to come, Reuters reported. The European Central Bank and some of its largest national affiliates are generating large losses, depleting provisions and much of their equity, as sharply higher interest rates force them to pay out billion in interest to commercial banks.

Russia failed to overturn a ruling in the Netherlands that ordered Moscow to pay around $50 billion in the bankruptcy case of Yukos Oil Co., once the largest Russian oil and gas company, Bloomberg News reported. The Amsterdam Court of Appeal dismissed Russia’s latest legal challenge in a saga that has dragged on for nearly two decades. The latest verdict is unlikely to result in an immediate payment to the former shareholders of Yukos. Russia has previously said it isn’t bound to pay the largest arbitration payout ever.

Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports that, adjusted for the number of court session days, there were 24 fewer bankruptcies in January 2024 than in December 2023, CBS.nl reported. This is a decrease of 6 percent. However, there has been an upward trend in the number of bankruptcies for nearly two years. In January 2024, over 60 percent more businesses were declared bankrupt than one year previously. This is an increase of 138 businesses. The number of corporate bankruptcies (adjusted for court session days) fluctuates substantially, with rapidly alternating ups and downs.

The curtain has come down on several stores of British shoe brand Clarks. The stores in Amsterdam (two), Breda, The Hague, Eindhoven, Haarlem, Leidschendam, Maastricht, Rotterdam and Utrecht were declared bankrupt on January 9, according to the public insolvency register, FashionUnited.uk reported. G.A. De Wit has been appointed receiver. FashionUnited sought contact with the trustee, but is still waiting for a response.

Mercon Coffee Corp., the bankrupt global coffee trader, must try to negotiate a cheaper way to fund its restructuring case after a U.S. judge rejected a proposed loan from Coöperatieve Rabobank, Bloomberg News reported. Rabobank had agreed to loan Mercon as much as $40 million that would pay about 15% interest, plus an upfront fee of 3% on part of the debt and the payment of $3.8 million in expenses, according to court documents and Bankruptcy Judge Michael E. Wiles.

Airline SAS AB is set to complete its US Chapter 11 process by June following expected regulatory approvals in Europe, according to Chief Executive Officer Anko van der Werff, Bloomberg News reported. That means the process is going according to plan, the CEO said in an interview on Thursday after posting fourth-quarter earnings that saw its adjusted pretax loss widen 30% year-on-year. The Scandinavian carrier filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2022, and in October reached a $1.2 billion refinancing deal with a group of investors including Air France-KLM and Castlelake.

More Dutch business owners are seeking help for financial problems despite the relatively low level of bankruptcy, Dutch News reported. The Dutch tax office has referred 1,465 companies this year to Over Rood, a volunteer-run organisation that helps companies in difficulty. In 2020, when the government bankrolled businesses that were unable to trade during lockdown, the number dropped to 607. The figure is relatively low despite the Netherlands being in recession, with the economy contracting in each of the first three quarters of 2023.

Airline SAS AB received approval from a bankruptcy court in New York for a $1.2 billion rescue package that will see Air France-KLM and private equity firm Castlelake LP become owners in the Scandinavian flag-carrier, Bloomberg News reported. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2022, saying it faced a significant decline in passenger demand during the Covid-19 pandemic as well as a series of pilot strikes and intense competition from low cost air carriers.

Scandinavian airline SAS said on Tuesday that U.S. investment firm Castlelake and Air France-KLM would become new major shareholders in the airline alongside the Danish state following bankruptcy proceedings, Reuters reported. Castlelake will take a stake of about 32%, Air France-KLM's will be around 20% and the Danish state will hold about 26%, SAS said. Scandinavia's biggest carrier filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States in mid-2022 after years of struggling with high costs coupled with low customer demand brought on by the pandemic.

Scandinavia’s biggest airline SAS AB has received a final round of bids from potential suitors looking to invest in the carrier as part of a rescue plan to shore up its ailing finances, Reuters reported. The Stockholm-based company, which is going through a chapter 11 reorganization in the U.S., needs to raise at least 9.5 billion Swedish kronor ($856 million) in new equity and convert or cut its debt pile of about 20 billion kronor. Chief Executive Officer Anko van der Werff has previously said the amount of equity is not set and could go higher.