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.
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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.
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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.
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VanMoof, the Dutch e-bike maker that gained a zealous following but declared bankruptcy last month, has been acquired by Lavoie, an upscale electric scooter company, the firms announced on Thursday, the New York Times reported. Riders of the expensive and technologically advanced VanMoof bikes were left in limbo by the company’s bankruptcy, because the machines are built from proprietary parts that only the company made and many of the bikes’ functions are linked to a smartphone app that runs on the company’s servers.
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The Dutch economy has entered a recession as it shrank 0.3% on a quarterly basis in the second quarter, a first estimate published by Statistics Netherlands on Wednesday showed, Reuters reported. The euro zone's fifth largest economy shrank for the second consecutive quarter, after a 0.4% contraction in the first three months of the year. Economic growth in the Netherlands had been almost 5% per year in 2021 and 2022 in a quick recovery from a COVID-19 slump.
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VanMoof, the Dutch e-bike maker that gained a zealous following, tripled its sales in the pandemic and raised more than $180 million in funding, declared bankruptcy last month, leaving riders in limbo, the New York Times reported. That’s because the eye-catching e-bikes, which start around $2,000, are built from proprietary parts that only the company makes, available mostly at company-run service centers. And many of the bikes’ functions are linked to VanMoof’s smartphone app.
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Dutch bicycle maker VanMoof has been declared bankrupt, slamming the brakes on a company that won design awards for its stylish, minimalist electric bikes but struggled to meet soaring demand and fix glitches with the app powering its service, ABC News reported. The Amsterdam-based company, started in 2009 by brothers Taco and Ties Carlier, posted a statement on its website informing clients that an Amsterdam court declared VanMoof bankrupt on Monday. The company headquarters in Amsterdam was closed Tuesday.
U.S. asset manager Apollo Global Management Inc. plans to apply for approval from Swedish and Danish regulators to take a majority stake in SAS AB as part of the Scandinavian airline's rescue plan, Reuters reported. The news of interest from the U.S. asset manager sent the embattled carrier's shares up as much as 14% in Wednesday morning trading. At 1011 GMT, they were up 5.9%. SAS has lost almost 60% of its value since it filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last July, seeking to slash costs and debt after wage talks with pilots collapsed. A deal with the U.S.
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A judge ruled Wednesday that the Dutch government cannot order Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, one of Europe's busiest aviation hubs, to reduce the number of flights from 500,000 per year to 460,000, dealing a blow to efforts to cut emissions and noise pollution, the Associated Press reported. The ruling came in a summary case brought by airlines and civil aviation organizations led by Dutch carrier KLM that sought to halt the planned cuts unveiled last year.
Solar car maker Lightyear from Helmond is making a restart in a slimmed-down form, the NL Times reported. The bankruptcy administrator will be selling some of the stocks of the previously bankrupt company in the near future. That includes some (demo) vehicles of the first Lightyear 0 model. This month, there is a special online auction to raise money for paying the company’s creditors. On a viewing day on Wednesday, April 19, interested parties can come and see the cars in person, bankruptcy administrator Reinoud van Oeijen said.