Norway

Norway is moving closer to easing mortgage lending standards as the nation’s deflating property market prompts concern among lawmakers that existing regulations are too tight, Bloomberg reported. Real estate prices, which have doubled over the past decade and touched a record high this year, are now dropping faster than the central bank had predicted. The Conservative-led government, which won power in September, says it’s now looking into raising the amount banks can lend to borrowers to 90 percent of a property’s value, from 85 percent previously, in an effort to support first-time buyers.

Troubled Scandinavian airline SAS and its labor unions on Monday pushed on with talks aimed at ensuring the group's survival and avoiding bankruptcy after a midnight deadline for a deal passed, The Chicago Tribune reported on a Reuters story. The Scandinavian airline, hit by competition from lower-price rivals, last week announced plans to cut some salaries by up to 17 percent, reduce overall headcount to about 9,000 from 15,000 and reduce costs.

SAS AB on Monday said it would cut salaries and more jobs as part of a new restructuring plan that is dependent partly on the support of labor unions, as the Scandinavian airline carrier tries to convince investors of its long-term future, The Wall Street Journal reported. The airline, partly owned by the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish governments, said its new plan will include cost savings of around three billion Swedish kronor ($445 million), outsourcing parts of customer service and improvements to information technology.

Renewable Energy Corp (REC), a Norwegian manufacturer of solar power equipment, has agreed a new bank facility under a restructuring plan as it seeks to survive a global glut of its key products and high raw material costs, Reuters reported. The company, which saw a previous debt restructuring blocked by its bondholders, has raised $218 million in equity and will take up a new 2 billion crown ($335.3 million) bank debt facility, after bondholders failed to approve changes to a bond loan agreement on Tuesday.

Negotiators headed off a strike of 29,000 Norwegian industrial workers on Sunday with a "moderate" wage-and-benefits hike that could set the tone for other labor talks this spring across the oil-rich economy, Reuters reported. Strikers had threatened to picket about 800 companies, including units of oil company supplier Aker Solutions, aluminium producer Hydro, defense contractor Kongsberg Defense and clothing maker Helly Hansen.

Norske Skogindustrier ASA, the second-largest newsprint producer, is planning to sell assets and issue debt backed by its accounts receivable to stave off a default that credit markets judge is a 93 percent certainty, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. The Norwegian papermaker is in talks with potential buyers of at least 200 million kroner ($35 million) of assets it considers non-core and plans to raise as much as 125 million euros ($169 million) from the securitized debt transaction, Norske Skog Chief Financial Officer Audun Roeneid said in a telephone interview.

Shares in Norway's troubled oil production equipment contractor Sevan Marine ASA traded 63% higher Friday after the company said it will sell three production, storage and offloading vessels to Canada's Teekay Corp. in a deal that will give the cash-strapped company long-term financing, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Teekay, a provider of marine services to the petroleum industry, will also subscribe to a new issue of Sevan Marine shares to gain a significant shareholding, Sevan Marine said, but declined to give further details.

Norwegian oil production equipment contractor Sevan Marine ASA Wednesday announced changes to its senior management as the company continues to struggle with its finances, reporting a $639 million net loss for the second quarter, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported.

Russian cardboard mogul Boris G. Zingarevich has purchased the electric-car manufacturer Think Global AS, marking yet another financial revival for a company that’s faced demise several times throughout its 20-year existence, The Wall Street Journal Bankruptcy Beat blog reported. Previously owned by Norwegian investors who picked it up from Ford Motor Co., the Think brand will now be marketed by the newly created Electric Mobility Solutions AS, and production of the eye-catching two-door cars is set to begin in the first quarter of 2012. Terms of the deal weren’t released.

Think Global, the Norwegian electric car producer that styled itself as a pioneer of battery-powered driving, filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday after failing to find long-term financing for its business, the Financial Times reported. Ener1, the US lithium-ion battery producer which led a capital increase of Think last year, said that it planned to take a charge on its earnings worth about $35m relating to loans receivable from the company.