The Netherlands expects to borrow 101.5 billion euros ($107.8) on the debt markets next year, the most since 2012, and its funding needs are "extremely uncertain" as much depends on the energy price outlook, the country's debt agency said on Friday, Reuters reported. Around 50 billion euros will be raised from long-term debt, the Dutch State Treasury Agency (DSTA) said. The Netherlands will also sell a new, 20-year green bond, its second bond, in the format that funds environmentally-friendly projects.
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Netherlands
The Dutch central bank on Thursday issued a statement saying cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin is operating in the Netherlands without being registered to do so, Reuters. KuCoin is a subsidiary of a Seychelles-registered company called MEK Global Limited, the bank said in a statement. MGL "is acting in violation of the law on preventing money laundering and financing terrorism and offering illegal services," De Nederlandsche Bank said.
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A shortage of some medicines may eventually arise due to the bankruptcy of the pharmaceutical manufacturer InnoGenerics in Leiden, Netherlands Minister Ernst Kuipers of Public Health informed parliament, the NL Times reported. The court in The Hague declared the generic medicine maker bankrupt on Tuesday. There was no takeover candidate, and the Cabinet decided against investing money in the company due to all kinds of uncertainties. The company had been struggling for some time.
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The number of bankruptcies in the Netherlands has risen for the third month in a row. According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), 224 companies and institutions, including one-person businesses, went bankrupt in November. That is seven more than in October, the NL Times reported. According to CBS, this was the highest number of bankruptcies in over two years, though it is still lower than before the coronavirus pandemic. The number of bankruptcies is so low partly due to the Cabinet’s coronavirus support, which kept even fundamentally unhealthy companies afloat.
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Germany and the Netherlands have proposed a package of 10 measures that the European Union could use to curb gas prices and avoid fuel rationing, including looking into setting a new benchmark price for liquefied natural gas. The plan, seen by Reuters and shared with other EU countries before the bloc's energy ministers meet on Wednesday, calls for the EU to kickstart joint gas buying, to avoid one country outbidding another and driving prices higher.
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Dutch greenhouses are cutting output of food and flowers and almost a 10th expect to be forced into bankruptcy soon by Europe’s energy crisis, an industry group survey showed, Bloomberg News reported. The recent survey by Glastuinbouw Nederland is one of the latest signs of how the region’s energy crunch is making it more expensive to produce goods and commodities. A quarter of the Netherlands’ cultivation area has been cut and 8% of greenhouse businesses predict filing for bankruptcy this year.
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The Dutch government expects to spend about 23.5 billion euros ($23.3 billion) on a price cap on energy contracts to shield consumers from surging prices, it said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The government last month said it would cap prices but had yet to agree final details. During the whole of 2023 prices will be capped at 0.40 euros per kilowatt hour of electricity and 1.45 euros per cubic metre of gas for a maximum of 2,900 kilowatt hours and 1,200 cubic metres respectively.
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Two Dutch startups, Tykn and LoCoMoGo, have declared bankruptcy this month, Silicon Canals reported. Tykn, The Hague-headquartered blockchain-based digital identity management platform, was declared bankrupt by the court in The Hague on July 14. That same day, Locomogo Holding BV, under the name Kipkemoi Enterprise BV in Amsterdam (Noord-Holland), was declared bankrupt by the court in Overijssel. Bankruptcy filings are expected to rise in 2022 as governments withdraw measures adopted to help companies stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, reports trade credit insurer Euler Hermes.
SAS and pilots unions reached a wage deal on Monday, ending a strike over a new collective bargaining agreement that has grounded hundreds of flights and thrown the airline's future into doubt, Reuters reported. A majority of SAS pilots in Sweden, Denmark and Norway walked out on July 4, triggering a strike that SAS has said cost it between $94 million and $123 million a day. "What I'm hearing from the negotiation room is that we have a deal," a spokesperson for Dansk Metal, one of the unions representing SAS pilots, told Reuters, adding the agreement was not yet finalised.
A Dutch court ruled that Microsoft Corp. must allow bankruptcy trustees appointed to the Russia-linked Amsterdam Trade Bank to access to its data or face fines, Bloomberg News reported. The technology giant risks daily fines of 10 million euros ($10.5 million), with a maximum penalty of 100 million euros, if it doesn’t comply with the ruling, court-appointed trustee Job van Hooff said by phone late Tuesday. ATB, a lender linked to Russia’s Alfa Group, was declared bankrupt last month in the Netherlands after U.S. and U.K. sanctions paralyzed its payment systems.
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