Nasdaq, the exchanges operator, reported a 4.1 per cent drop in net income for the third quarter, which included an $8m loss related to the default of Einar Aas, a private Norwegian trader whose bets in the European power market collapsed last month, the Financial Times reported. Nasdaq is the principal trading exchange where futures contracts tied to physical energy markets in the Nordic region are transacted. The loss contributed to an increase in Nasdaq’s overall operating expenses in the quarter to $354m from $341m a year ago.
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Oil service company Solstad Offshore is seeking negotiations with creditors and other stakeholders to boost liquidity ahead of the slow winter season, the company said on Monday, sending its shares down around 20 percent, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Solstad, with more than 4,000 employees, is one of the world's largest suppliers of specialised vessels to the oil and gas industry as well as offshore wind power developers. It has a fleet of 141 vessels.
Europe’s biggest debt collector says an increase in volumes in Sweden and Norway could be an early indication that households are starting to struggle paying off their consumer loans after debt burdens swelled to records, Bloomberg News reported. Volumes under Intrum AB’s existing credit-management services contracts in the two countries, in which it collects money from non-paying clients of financial institutions, grew by more than 15 percent in the first half of the year.
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Erik Heim, the CEO of Nordic Aquafarms, says his company will not be hindered in its construction of new recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) Atlantic salmon facilities in both Belfast, Maine, and Fredrikstad, Norway, by the news that vendor Inter Aqua Advance (IAA) has filed for bankruptcy protection, Undercurrent News reported. "We are working with a portfolio of vendors, including several RAS vendors, in addition to our internal engineering department that is growing," Heim said in an email to Undercurrent News.
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Norwegian drillship and rig operator Fred. Olsen Energy, owner of the yard that built the RMS Titanic, is considering a debt and equity restructuring that would almost wipe out the value of its current shares, the company said. With debt and liabilities of more than $840 million at the end of June, Fred. Olsen last month stopped paying its creditors to preserve liquidity, making it the latest victim of a slow recovery in the oil and gas exploration sector, Reuters reported.
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Offshore rig company Seadrill has received two additional non-binding proposals from bondholders for a debt restructuring after the Norwegian firm filed for U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, court documents show. The two indications of interest came from bondholders seeking alternatives to the firm’s own plan, Seadrill said in documents submitted late on Friday.
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Seadrill Ltd. jumped as much as 26 percent as the offshore driller controlled by John Fredriksen said it’s getting closer to a solution to restructure the industry’s heaviest debt load and that it’s promoting a company insider to chief executive officer, Bloomberg News reported. Seadrill has been working for well over a year to restructure a wall of debt incurred before crude prices started collapsing in 2014, abruptly closing a decade-long boom for the oil-service industry.
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The pace of consolidation in the crisis-hit shipping industry accelerated on Monday after three of Norway's biggest offshore oil industry service vessel (OSV) operators announced plans to merge to create one of the biggest fleets in the sector, Reuters reported. Shipping tycoon John Fredriksen and Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Roekke said they had agreed a restructuring plan for Farstad Shipping, via a debt-for-equity swap and additional share issue, solving long-running efforts to address liabilities worth 12.6 billion crowns ($1.53 billion) at end-September.
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Norway’s central bank is predicted to leave its key policy rate unchanged at a record low as the economy of western Europe’s biggest oil producer fights off the biggest slump in crude prices in a generation, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank will keep its key policy rate at 0.50 percent at a meeting on Thursday, according to 15 of 22 economist surveyed by Bloomberg. Seven predict a cut to 0.25 percent. The bank will likely keep an easing bias to avoid the krone from strengthening too much, according to DNB ASA and Nordea Bank.
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Restructuring the debt of struggling offshore oil service vessel (OSV) and drilling rig companies will take years to complete and complex cases must go through multiple stages, an executive at top Norwegian bank DNB told Reuters on Tuesday. Dozens of exploration rigs and more than 100 service vessels have been mothballed since the plunge in oil prices began in mid-2014, leaving owners unable to repay billions of dollars to banks and bondholders.
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