Sweden

SAS AB, which is working its way through a chapter 11 restructuring in the U.S., warned that much more needs to be done to persuade stakeholders to invest in the ailing Scandinavian airline, Bloomberg News reported. The airline is also having to overcome the effects of a pilots’ strike and travel disruptions that have hampered its important summer season, just as the price of kerosene has skyrocketed and inflation is accelerating.

Swedish furniture giant IKEA has decided to liquidate its Russian unit, limited liability company IKEA Dom, further scaling back its operations after more than a decade-long presence in the country, a corporate record showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Scores of consumer brands suspended operations in Russia after Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, with H&M, IKEA and Nike among the companies to have announced plans for a permanent exit.

Scandinavian airline SAS said on Saturday it entered into an agreement with Apollo Global Management to raise $700 million of fresh financing it needs to see it through bankruptcy, Reuters reported. The airline filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States in early July to help cut debt after the collapse of wage talks between the airline and its pilots, triggering a 15-day strike that added to travel chaos across Europe. SAS said in a statement it expects to complete the Chapter 11 restructuring process in nine to 12 months.

SAS said today that a pilot strike now in its 11th day threatened the airline's ability to access bridge financing without which it may be forced to radically downsize or could collapse, Reuters reported. SAS and unions were locked in more talks on Thursday to end a strike among most of its pilots at the peak of the holiday travel season, over conditions related to the Scandinavian carrier's rescue plan. "The strikes ...

Embattled Scandinavian airline SAS and unions representing pilots will resume negotiations on Wednesday to try and agree a new labor deal to end a one-week strike, Reuters reported. SAS has canceled more than 1,200 flights since July 4 when talks with many of its pilots over a new collective bargaining agreement collapsed and they launched the crippling strike. "What has now happened is that we have asked the parties to gather in Stockholm from Wednesday," Swedish mediator Jan Sjolin said.

Hundreds of SAS flights were canceled on Thursday as the airline wrestled with a strike by pilots at its main SAS Scandinavia arm, overshadowing a traffic surge during June, Reuters reported. Talks between the airline and pilots over a new collective bargaining agreement collapsed on Monday, prompting a strike which adds to travel chaos in Europe and deepens the financial crisis at SAS, which estimated it would ground half its flights. The troubled airline, whose biggest owners are the Swedish and the Danish states, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States on Tuesday.

A day after its pilots went on strike, SAS, the Scandinavian airline, said on Tuesday that it had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, the latest reverberation in a summer of turmoil for European airlines, the New York Times reported. SAS described the filing, made in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, as the “next step” in a reorganization that would address the money-losing airline’s financial difficulties, including cost reductions of more than $700 million.

Swedish electric car start-up Uniti has filed for insolvency as the company announced on LinkedIn that it had not been able to raise enough capital, Electrive.com reported. Uniti had already warned of possible insolvency in December 2021. These financing problems for Uniti have been dragging on for some time. The warning in December was triggered by the fact that a bridging loan promised for the end of November did not materialise. At the time, it was said that if 500,000 euros could not be raised within a week, insolvency would have to be declared.

Pressure is piling up on Riksbank Governor Stefan Ingves to unwind the central bank’s ultra-loose policy as Sweden’s tight labor market and rising energy prices starts to translate into broader inflation, Bloomberg News reported. The Nordic nation has recovered briskly from the pandemic and its economy is showing signs of overheating, prompting critics within the bank as well as externally to push for withdrawing stimulus.