Sweden

The Swedish National Debt Office said Monday that Saab Automobile has reached an agreement in principle with financiers regarding a solution to the company's acute liquidity crisis, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. "The information that Saab has presented to us looks good and they will now have to present us a contract that is signed," said Unni Jerndal, a spokeswoman for Sweden's NDO. She said all conditions set by the Swedish government to reach an agreement have been met, and Saab is now working on the last details to secure the deal.

Saab Automobile's attempts to solve its acute liquidity crisis so that it can pay suppliers and restart production now lie in the hands of the Swedish government, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Sweden's National Debt Office Thursday received Saab's proposal to fix its immediate and mid-term financial issues and forwarded it--along with a recommendation--to the government to make a final decision.

Just over a year after General Motors engineered a sale that saved Saab from oblivion, the carmaker is facing a fresh bout of financial troubles that threaten to spread pain across Sweden, The New York Times reported. Production has been halted since Tuesday at the Saab plant in Trollhättan, near Gothenburg, following several disruptions last week and amid disputes with suppliers over payments and contracts. Saab said Thursday that assembly lines would not resume until early next week as it scrambled to find funds to pay its suppliers.

Nortel Networks Corp, the fallen Canadian telecom giant, said it will sell nearly all assets of its Chinese joint venture to Ericsson's China unit for $50 million in cash, Reuters reported. The joint venture -- Guangdong Nortel Telecommunication Equipment -- is a research, development and manufacturing firm in which Nortel's units, Nortel Networks Ltd and Nortel China, own 62 percent. GDNT became a supplier to Ericsson after the Swedish mobile network equipment maker bought Nortel's CDMA and GSM businesses.

A local authority in western Sweden is enlisting the help of the government's debt collector to recover $15.9 million it spent supporting carmaker Saab, now owned by Dutch group Spyker, Reuters reported. The government of Vastra Gotaland in western Sweden, home to Saab's main production plant, covered wages when Saab Automobile was under administration before its sale to Spyker.

Sweden's Vastra Gotaland region said Saab, owned by Dutch group Spyker, must pay its $15 million bill from the government by Sept. 20 or it will ask the public debt collector to enforce payment, Reuters reported. The bill is from a period when Saab Automobile was under administration and the government of Vastra Gotaland in western Sweden, home to Saab's main production plant, stepped in to cover wages. Vastra Gotaland Governor Lars Backstrom said on Monday that Saab owed it 110.7 million crowns ($15.3 million).

Swedish investment bank HQ, which was closed by authorities at the weekend for breaking risk rules, said it would unveil a deal on Thursday amid frantic efforts to find a buyer for the niche bank. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) stripped HQ of its licence after the watchdog found it broke banking and risk regulations at its trading operation, which was shut down by HQ in June. "HQ Bank is planning a news conference on Thursday to present the details of an agreement," the bank said in a short statement.

Swedish investment bank HQ AB said it is entering liquidation after its license was revoked over the weekend, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The Swedish financial-supervisory authority, Finansinspektionen, Saturday pulled the bank's license, citing violation of both Swedish accounting and capital-requirement regulations. The regulator said HQ had overvalued its trading portfolio and inaccurately reported its financial position, believing a correct valuation would have shown that the bank has been undercapitalized since December 2008.

Swedish network equipment vendor L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co. has purchased Nortel Networks Corp.'s controlling stake in a South Korean joint venture for $242 million in cash, a move that should help boost its footprint in the Asian country, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Ericsson said Wednesday that it has bought Nortel's 50% plus one share stake in its joint venture with LG Electronics Inc., LG-Nortel. LG-Nortel will be renamed LG-Ericsson and will continue to have its headquarters in Seoul.

France has proven surprisingly stable in the European economic storm. As Greece struggles to avoid default or bailout, Spain and Portugal watch anxiously, Sweden falls back into recession, Germany argues about historically high budget deficits and Britain grapples with deficits and debt of Hellenic proportions, France looks solid and even wise to many, The New York Times reported.