Sweden

Norsk Hydro became the sole owner of battery recycler Hydrovolt on Monday after the Norwegian aluminium maker agreed to buy the remaining shares from ailing Swedish battery maker Northvolt for 78 million Norwegian crowns ($6.79 million), Reuters reported. Northvolt, once hailed as Europe's best shot at a home-grown electric-vehicle battery champion, has been slimming down and racing to stay afloat after being hobbled by production problems, loss of a major customer contract and a funding crisis. The battery maker entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S.

Shareholders in Swedish electric car battery maker Northvolt agreed Wednesday at an extraordinary general meeting to allow the financially-strained company to continue operating and avoid liquidation, Agence France Presse reported. Northvolt filed for chapter 11 protection in the U.S. in late November to enable it to restructure its debt and reorganize its business. he battery maker said in U.S. filings that it owed $5.8 billion.

German investment group Mutares SE & Co. said that its portfolio company Serneke Sverige AB has filed for bankruptcy in Sweden in the latest collapse of a builder in the biggest Nordic country, Bloomberg News reported. The filing at the Gothenburg District Court follows a “drastic financial deterioration during the second half of 2024,” according to a statement on Wednesday. The Swedish construction and real estate unit was agreed to be bought from Serneke Group AB in July last year and the transaction was completed in November.

Northvolt AB is asking for shareholder approval to keep building battery cells while the bankrupt electric-vehicle supplier seeks the new funding needed to emerge from chapter 11 protection, Bloomberg News reported. The extraordinary general meeting scheduled for Wednesday at Northvolt’s Stockholm headquarters is billed as a “procedural step” by the company. The gathering, announced in December, is required when equity falls below one-half of registered share capital, spokesman Martin Hofelmann said in an email.

Swedish electric-vehicle battery maker Northvolt said on Friday it expects to line up additional bankruptcy financing by late January after engaging with over 100 lenders and potential investors, Reuters reported. Northvolt entered bankruptcy on Nov. 21 with a $100-million bankruptcy loan from Swedish truck maker Scania, a shareholder and its biggest customer. But that loan was not intended to carry Northvolt through its entire bankruptcy restructuring, and the company has continued to evaluate proposals for additional financing from strategic and financial investors.

Sweden’s central bank lowered its key interest rate and signaled that borrowing costs could be lowered again next year to support the stuttering economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Riksbank cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 2.50% on Thursday. The move marks a return to more gradual monetary policy easing.

Sweden’s Intrum AB has struck an agreement with a noteholder group that could resolve a key obstacle in the debt collector’s bid to restructure in U.S. bankruptcy court, Bloomberg News reported. The company had “come to terms” with the group of debt holders ahead of a hearing in the US bankruptcy court, according to Andrew M. Leblanc, a company attorney. The agreement requires the consents of other parties, a process that’s currently underway, he said at a Monday hearing in Texas.

Denmark’s biggest pension fund, ATP, is taking a major hit on its 2.3 billion-krone ($324 million) stake in troubled battery maker Northvolt AB, Danish broadcaster DR reported, according to Bloomberg News. ATP is one of the largest owners in Northvolt with a stake of about 5%. The value of that holding “probably won’t be very far from zero,” the asset manager’s Chief Executive Officer Martin Praestegaard told DR in an interview, stopping short of giving a specific amount for the writedown. “By far most of the investment is gone,” Praestegaard said, according to DR.

Swedish landlord SBB has launched a major overhaul of its debt structure as it prepares to fight a landmark litigation case against US hedge fund Fir Tree Partners in London next month, Bloomberg News reported. Samhallsbyggnadsbolaget i Norden AB, as the company is officially known, is planning to issue at least €1.7 billion ($1.8 billion) of new bonds that existing noteholders can exchange with their current securities.