Sweden

Swedish battery maker Northvolt is making significant progress towards raising a new financing package, it told Reuters on Monday. The group has been in talks with investors and lenders in recent weeks to secure short-term funding, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Oct. 11, as the board sought to stabilise the company's finances. It has already started collecting signatures for a financing package potentially larger than $300 million, that could be announced before the end of the month and give the battery maker enough funds until next year.

Europe's biggest debt collector, said on Friday that it will file for voluntary chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States as it seeks to restructure its own finances, Reuters reported. The company has struggled as the pandemic, an energy crisis and two-decade-high interest rates failed to unleash a wave of loan defaults, with concerns mounting over Intrum's net debt, which reached 49.4 billion Swedish crowns ($4.69 billion) at the end of June.

Northvolt AB is closing in on an about $300 million rescue package that includes debt and equity, buying time for the cash-strapped Swedish battery maker to stabilize production and line up longer-term financing, Bloomberg News reported. A combination of shareholders, lenders and customers are participating in the bridge funding, and the instruments vary among these groups. Discussions are in the final stages, though there remains some risk they can still fall apart.

Troubled Swedish battery maker Northvolt AB has laid off nearly 400 white-collar workers at its center of operations in Skelleftea as part of concluded negotiations with two of the Swedish trade unions, Bloomberg News reported. The redundancies form part of a previously announced measure to cut 1,000 jobs at the Northvolt Ett plant in northern Sweden. The maker of electric vehicle batteries is racing to preserve cash while it negotiates a new financing pact with investors.

Intrum AB is in talks with holdout creditors to persuade them to sign up to its restructuring proposal, Bloomberg News reported. The Swedish debt collector and its advisers are looking to find a compromise on its debt plan with holders of the majority of its 2025 bonds. Intrum has been trying to win over investors to stabilize an unsustainable debt structure that is facing looming maturities. It already has the support of more than 72% of bondholders who signed up to a binding agreement, exceeding the two-thirds threshold required for a chapter 11 process in the U.S.

Northvolt is in talks with investors and lenders to secure about 200 million euros ($218 million) in short-term funding, as the Swedish maker of batteries for electric vehicles seeks to stabilise its finances, Reuters reported. The talks have been taking place this week, one of the sources said, adding that the company still aims to raise a larger amount of capital for the long-term. On Friday, Northvolt repeated a statement from Sept. 24 that said it had made significant progress in recent weeks in its effort to raise cash.

Sweden’s National Debt Office has ruled out activating $1.5 billion in credit guarantees for Northvolt AB that were tied to a now-halted expansion of the battery manufacturer’s main factory, Bloomberg News reported. Northvolt suspended the build-out at its plant in northern Sweden last month as it sought to streamline operations and contend with a cash crunch. The troubled electric-vehicle supplier never drew the guaranteed funds, and this week put the unit managing the project at Skelleftea, near the Arctic Circle, into bankruptcy.

A subsidiary of corpdSweden's Northvolt filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday after the project it was developing was cancelled, court filings showed, while the rest of the cash-strapped battery making group continued to consolidate operations, Reuters reported. The Northvolt Ett Expansion AB unit had debts estimated at between 2 billion and 3 billion Swedish crowns ($194 million and $290 million), a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee told business daily Dagens Industri.

Swedish landlord SBB plans to sell as much as 4 billion Swedish kronor ($390 million) worth of stock in its residential unit in an effort to shore up its balance sheet, Bloomberg News reported. The company plans to offer a maximum of 88 million shares in Sveafastigheter AB in a contemplated initial public offering, with pricing estimated in the range of 39.5 kronor to 45.5 kronor each, according to a statement on Monday. That corresponds to 44% of the total number of shares in the residential unit, which is slightly less than its previous guidance.