Netherlands

ING‘s chief financial officer has resigned after being singled out as responsible for the compliance failings that allowed companies to launder hundreds of millions of euros and pay bribes. Koos Timmermans, a 22-year veteran of ING, is the most senior executive to leave the Dutch bank over the money laundering affair, for which it has agreed to pay a record €775m in penalties to the country’s public prosecutor, the Financial Times reported.

Shares in French telecoms group Altice fell 13 per cent in early trade on Thursday, after it reported a fall in sales and warned that margins would be squeezed for the full year as it spent more to win customers. In the second quarter of the year total revenue fell 5 per cent to €3.5bn compared to the same period last year, which included a 6 per cent fall in its telecoms division and a 21 per cent drop in its support services division, the Financial Times reported.

Shareholders in Steinhoff on Wednesday sued Deloitte for damages in a Dutch court, accusing the auditor of failures in the accounting scandal that brought the South Africa-based global retailer to the brink of collapse, the Financial Times reported. VEB, the Dutch investor rights group, said it brought the lawsuit in the Rotterdam district court as Deloitte had “seriously failed in its statutory task as auditor” by giving an unqualified audit to Steinhoff before the owner of the UK’s Poundland and Mattress Firm in the US revealed a black hole of more than €5bn in its accounts.

Shareholders in Steinhoff on Wednesday sued Deloitte for damages in a Dutch court, accusing the auditor of failures in the accounting scandal that brought the South Africa-based global retailer to the brink of collapse, the Financial Times reported. VEB, the Dutch investor rights group, said it brought the lawsuit in the Rotterdam district court as Deloitte had “seriously failed in its statutory task as auditor” by giving an unqualified audit to Steinhoff before the owner of the UK’s Poundland and Mattress Firm in the US revealed a black hole of more than €5bn in its accounts.

The Netherlands is demanding that private investors face mandatory debt writedowns in future eurozone bailouts, a position that will fuel arguments as countries spar over the next phase of integration in the single currency bloc. Wopke Hoekstra, the Dutch finance minister, said imposing haircuts on private creditors was “essential” to protect eurozone taxpayers from paying to rescue bankrupt governments and introduce greater market discipline on high debt economies, the Financial Times reported. “It is essential if things go wrong.

Etihad Airways is urgently examining ways to avert a technical default of some $1.2 billion in bonds indirectly linked to the Gulf airline, sources close to the situation told Reuters. An Amsterdam-based special purpose vehicle called SPV Equity Alliance Partners (EAP) was set up in 2015 and issued two bonds for Etihad and other airlines it partially owned at the time, including Alitalia and Air Berlin, which are both now insolvent, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Dutch tidal turbines developer Tocardo International BV has filed for insolvency the same day it became official that Canada’s Tribute Resources Inc will not buy out the company, Renewables Now reported. Tocardo has secured a deferral of payment to creditors. A creditors meeting will be held on March 27, 2018. In early August 2017, Canadian energy company Tribute Resources unveiled its intention to buy the 53.5% stake it does not already own in Tocardo and focus on tidal and marine power development. The plan included changing Tribute’s name to Tocardo Energy Inc following the combination.

Embattled billionaire Patrick Drahi sought to shore up the plunging stock price at Altice NV, the phone and cable company weighed down by $50 billion in debt, assuring investors he won’t sell new shares to raise cash, Bloomberg News reported. “Altice confirms that it is not in preparation of a cash raising by means of an equity or equity-linked issuance and has no intention to pursue such action within the group including Altice USA,” the Amsterdam-based company said in a statement published at 12:30 a.m. Monday.

A court in the Netherlands on Thursday decided that two subsidiaries of debt-laden Brazilian phone carrier Oi SA would not start bankruptcy proceedings, the company said in a securities filing. The filing confirmed a Reuters report that Oi Brasil Holdings Coöperatief UA and Portugal Telecom International Finance BV, would remain operating under "suspension of payments" legal status.

A court in the Netherlands on Thursday postponed until Feb. 2 a decision on whether to enforce bankruptcy proceedings against two subsidiaries of phone carrier Oi SA, which is under creditor protection in Brazil, said two sources briefed on the matter who were not authorized to discuss it publicly, Reuters reported. The ruling was expected to be made on Thursday, according to a statement from Oi on Jan. 12. One of the sources said the reasons for the delay were unclear. The second source declined to elaborate.