Sweden

Sweden’s Volta Trucks AB is planning to file for bankruptcy following a breakdown in its supply chain, Bloomberg News reported. The decision comes roughly two months after Volta’s battery supplier Proterra Inc. failed, causing the truckmaker to fall short of production targets. The collapse “negatively affected our ability to raise sufficient capital in an already challenging capital-raising environment for electric-vehicle players,” Volta’s board said in a statement. Proterra’s U.S.

The chair of the board of Alecta, Sweden's largest pension fund provider, resigned on Monday following months of questions over the company's loss-making investments in U.S. banks and a Swedish property group, Reuters reported. Alecta, the subject of two ongoing probes by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) over risk taking, said in a statement its deputy board chair, Jan-Olof Jacke, will lead the board until a permanent candidate is elected. "In a situation where there has been too much focus on my person, I have decided to resign," Ingrid Bonde said in a statement.

SBB, the landlord at the center of Sweden’s property crisis, will deploy roughly half of a cash lifeline to repay upcoming debt maturities, according to comments by rating firm Standard & Poor’s, Bloomberg News reported. On Sunday, Samhallsbyggnadsbolaget i Norden AB — as the company is formally known — said it had covered a near-term funding gap in a deal that will raise 8 billion Swedish kronor ($720 million) by ceding control in a portfolio of schools to Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management Ltd.

Struggling Swedish landlord SBB took a major step toward stabilizing its finances with a cash injection and a plan to divide up its operations, sending a signal that money is available despite the country’s real estate crisis, Bloomberg News reported. Samhallsbyggnadsbolaget i Norden AB — as the company is officially known — will largely close its near-term funding gap in a deal that will raise 8 billion Swedish kronor ($720 million). The shares surged as much as 40%, and the company’s bonds maturing in January 2025 jumped 6 cents on the euro, according to data complied by Bloomberg.

Struggling Swedish landlord SBB took a major step toward stabilizing its finances after agreeing to sell a further stake in a portfolio of school buildings to Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management Ltd., Bloomberg News reported. Samhallsbyggnadsbolaget i Norden AB — as the company is officially known — agreed to sell 1.16% holding in the education division to Brookfield, making the Canadian investor the majority shareholder after it already owned 49% of the unit called SBB EduCo AB.

Padel, the racket sport craze currently sweeping across much of the planet, has turned into a cautionary tale for investors in one of the countries that first fully embraced it: Sweden, Bloomberg News reported. Padel centers in the biggest Nordic country are being converted to warehouses and budget grocery stores after the racket sport’s pandemic boom turned into a bust. Almost 90 padel-related companies have filed for bankruptcy this year, according to data from credit reference agency Creditsafe.

The number of Swedish companies going out of business reached the highest level since at least 1999, with several large builders going bankrupt as construction of new homes is screeching to a halt, Bloomberg News reported. As the Swedish economy is showing signs of buckling under the pressure of elevated inflation and rising interest rates, bankruptcies increased by 38% in August, according to a monthly release from Creditsafe.

Sweden’s housing starts extended a plunge into the second quarter as lower home prices and rising construction costs put the brakes on building activity, Bloomberg News reported. Construction started on about 14,550 new homes in the first half of the year, which represents a 57% decline from the year-ago period, Statistics Sweden said on Thursday. Housing starts have been on a downward trajectory since last year, hit by one of the world’s biggest declines in residential property prices that’s in recent months leveled off.

The founder of SBB once said the property company could withstand interest rates of 10%. In reality, less dramatic increases have turned the stock into a bonanza for short sellers, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Swedish landlord was set up in 2016 and borrowed heavily over the next few years to pay for its growing property empire. SBB was “hooked on the crack of cheap debt,” according to Viceroy Research founder Fraser Perring, whose hedge fund published a critical report about the company last year and questioned whether it was valuing its assets properly.

UBS Group AG will pay a total of about $387 million in fines related to misconduct by Credit Suisse Group AG in its dealings with Archegos Capital Management as the new owner of the collapsed Swiss rival starts picking up its legal tab, Bloomberg News reported. In a consent order with the Federal Reserve, UBS agreed to pay $268.5 million for “unsafe and unsound counterparty credit-risk management practices” at Credit Suisse, which UBS acquired in June.