Norway converts part of loan to stake in Norwegian Air
COPENHAGEN, May 12 (Reuters) - Norway said on Monday Norwegian Air (NAS.OL), opens new tab would pay back half of a convertible loan to the state, and that the remainder of the state's shares in the loan would be converted into shares in the airline.
The government said in a statement its stake in the airline would after the conversion total 6.37%.
The state's shares in the convertible loan originates from Norwegian Air's reconstruction in 2021.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Wales Online
3 hours ago
- Wales Online
Government warned that Welsh universities are in an 'precarious position'
Government warned that Welsh universities are in an 'precarious position' The alert from MPs follows a union claiming there is a real danger that a Welsh university could collapse as they face a £70m+ combined deficit, squeezed budgets and rising costs Welsh Affairs Committee chair Ruth Jones MP (Image: Mark Lewis Photography ) Welsh universities are in an "acutely precarious position", a parliamentary committee has warned. The alert follows a union claiming that there is "a real danger a Welsh university could collapse". The Welsh Affairs Committee is calling on the UK and Welsh governments to look at university funding again. Vice chancellors claim the current model isn't working as they face vast deficits and cuts. MPs on the Welsh affairs committee are calling on the UK Government "to think again on how universities are supported at a systemic level and to work with the Welsh Government to put them on a sustainable footing." Universities say they are struggling to make ends meet with fewer higher paying international students, increased costs and home tuition fees not covering the price of running those courses. Swansea University Vice Chancellor Professor Paul Boyle says the current university funding model is "unsustainable" In a statement after taking evidence from of all Welsh universities the committee, chaired by Newport West and Islwyn MP Ruth Jones ,said said: "universities in Wales are in an acutely precarious position, as they face up to wide-ranging challenges including falling admissions among Welsh young people, declining international student numbers and tuition fees lagging far behind inflation." The statement went on to say that the committee noted that this week's Industrial Strategy acknowledged the critical role universities play in driving skills and innovation, while they also hold "huge economic and civic importance to communities up and down Wales". You can read details of what vice chancellors told the Welsh Affairs Committee here. Article continues below Professor Wendy Larner, Vice Chancellor of cardiff-university>Cardiff University, told the committee on June 25 that this is 'an existential moment for universities' and that universities 'need to be different for the future'. Professor Paul Boyle, Vice Chancellor of Swansea University, added that universities are working towards financial sustainability within a system that 'does not lend itself to that sustainability'. Hearing from them and other vice chancellors the committee said: "The status quo is unsustainable. It's therefore crucial that the UK Government acts, together with its Welsh Government partners, as part of its promised major reforms for higher education." Sign up for our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here. Despite recent rises in home tuition fees and an extra £18m+ from the Welsh Government this year for universities in Wales say this extra income was all but wiped out by a collective £18m+ national insurance bill and other rising bills. But critics, and some university staff say thay there is a risk in increasing domestic fees. A further rise may deter home students from applying at the same time as fewer international students want to come to university here. It could also make university less attractive to people from less well off households and affect widening participation. Article continues below Nearly every university is making cuts with hundreds of jobs shed, courses earmarked for closure and warnings of more savings ahead.
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
Denmark and Sweden's Øresund bridge turns 25: have the benefits run in both directions?
After 19 years of commuting to Denmark from Sweden, Helen Sjögren is so used to crossing the bridge that she identifies as Scandinavian rather than Swedish. The researcher at a Danish pharmaceutical company lives in the Swedish university town of Lund with her three children but has become accustomed to Danish working practices, and the idea of working in Sweden is now difficult to imagine. 'Because I'm Swedish, colleagues would expect me to behave like a Swede,' she said, referring to their reputation for seeking consensus. 'So I would be seen as rude – too direct to fit in Sweden.' Danes, she has found, are more forthright. 'I really like the Danish mentality and way of being. It suits me much better.' 'I really like the Danish mentality and way of being. It suits me much better.' At work, she and her colleagues speak slightly adapted versions of Swedish and Danish so that everybody can understand one another. One of her few misgivings is that her taxes go to Copenhagen rather than her own municipality, where her children have gone to school and where she uses the healthcare services. In the quarter of a century since it opened on 1 July 2000, the bridge – known as Øresundsbroen or Öresundsbron depending on whether you are on the Danish or Swedish side of the eponymous strait – has not only opened up Copenhagen's vast job market to largely rural southern Sweden, but changed the prospects and even identities of many who use it. The 15.9km (9.9 miles) rail and road link between Copenhagen and Malmö (which includes an 8km bridge, 4km tunnel and 4km artificial island) has also transformed the world's perception of the region. But the trajectory of the two ends of the bridge has been a story of two halves. Copenhagen has soared to international super status, becoming a must-see tourist destination, global fashion and design leader, host to the biggest airport in the Nordics, as well as being home to the maker of Ozempic, Novo Nordisk. Thanks to the weak Swedish krona, it has become a magnet for Swedish workers, bringing in 2bn DKK (£230m) a year in tax revenues. Last year 105,000 daily journeys were made by car, train or boat over the strait, but most commuter traffic is travelling towards Denmark. Malmö has not thrived to the same extent. Despite being home to the beloved fictional detective Saga Norén of the hit Scandi crime drama The Bridge – which catapulted the bridge to international fame with its unsolved murders, crashing ships and tense dark drives across Øresund – Malmö has been an observer on the sidelines of the Danish capital's success story. This is perhaps best captured by the decision by politicians to name the area around the bridge covering southern Sweden and eastern Denmark 'Greater Copenhagen'. Of the 21,585 people who commuted regularly across the bridge to work in the final quarter of last year, 96% were people who live in Sweden, according to the Øresund Institute, an independent Swedish-Danish knowledge centre. By 2030, Greater Copenhagen, run by representatives of each of the included Swedish and Danish regions, aims to increase the total to 30,000. 'The number of commuters has begun to increase again,' said Johan Wessman, Øresund Institute's managing director and editor-in-chief. 'Partly because the labour shortage is increasing in Denmark, and partly because the Swedish krona makes it profitable to work in Denmark and live and shop in Sweden.' While it was not impossible to commute before the bridge – there were boats – it was significantly more time-consuming and difficult. In 1999, the year before the bridge opened, a total of 2,788 people commuted. As the train transported Sjögren towards Sweden and the water of the strait came into view, she said that without the bridge, life as she knew it would be impossible. 'It would never have worked because it would have taken so much longer to commute that I wouldn't have been able to hold my life together.' Although there are border controls in place – every train stops for six to seven minutes at Hyllie station, the first stop coming into Sweden from Denmark – she said she did not think of going to Copenhagen as going to a different country. 'For us who live down here, the border is not a big thing,' she said. But Anders Linde-Laursen, a professor at Malmö University who studies identity and belonging with a focus on the Øresund region, said users of the bridge were 'constantly reminded that they are crossing an international border'. This, he said, became abundantly clear when the bridge was temporarily closed in 2015 during the refugee crisis when the Swedish government said it needed 'respite' from asylum seekers, leading to the introduction of travellers needing to carry ID. And in 2020, during the pandemic, when the bridge was again closed. 'The border hit back at the region discourse and it was made very clear to everyone that there were Danes and Swedes, separated by the [water], and that no bridge would change that.' At the Danish energy agency's offices in central Copenhagen, Ture Ertmann is one of the 19,500 Danish-born people who live in Skåne, Sweden's most southerly county. After dropping his youngest off at preschool in Malmö, he gets the train over to Denmark and arrives a work at about 8.30am – a routine he has been following for 13 years. His wife and his other two children work and go to school in Malmö and, at home, Swedish is their main language. 'Everything is in Malmö,' said Ertmann, who founded the Facebook commuter group BroenLive. 'It is just me that is the odd one out, that works here and has a Danish passport.' Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment after newsletter promotion They originally decided to move after a sudden change to immigration rules in Denmark meant his wife, who is a nurse from the Philippines, would have issues with her visa. So they got married, moved to Sweden and started a family there. She now works at Malmö hospital and has Swedish citizenship. Cross-border life is not without problems. Because the two governments are not integrated when it comes to administration, paperwork can get tricky – particularly when it comes to property ownership and tax. Demand for the train is such that it is usually standing-room only at peak times, and services are often delayed. About 9,600 Danes now own summer houses in Sweden, compared with 4,400 in 2000, and an additional 11,330 Swedish summer houses have German owners – many of whom use the bridge to get there. Danske Torpare, a paid membership organisation that helps Danish people to navigate the administrative difficulties of buying houses in Sweden, said the price difference – it is almost half the price to buy a summerhouse in Sweden than it is in Denmark – and the opportunity to live in isolation in nature were big draws. Sweden's ambassador to Denmark, Hans Wallmark, said he was convinced the benefits of the bridge ran in both directions, but added: 'You cannot get away from the fact that Copenhagen is a capital city, so it has that attraction.' Citing the life science cluster, known as Medicon Valley, which is mostly centred on the Danish side but is increasingly spreading to the Swedish side, he said Danish successes such as Novo Nordisk had a positive impact on Sweden, too. The establishment of the European Spallation Source (ESS) in Lund, a research facility still under construction with a datacentre in Copenhagen, was another example of a cross-bridge success story, Wallmark said. The next 25 years, he predicted, would bring even greater connection and focus on the region – especially after the Fehmarnbelt tunnel opened in 2029, connecting the Danish town of Rødbyhavn with Puttgarden, in Germany, under the Baltic Sea. 'Then maybe we will not just be talking about Malmö, Copenhagen or Skåne, but also north Germany,' he said at his residence in Copenhagen. 'Bridges, connections lead to increased integration, increased prosperity.' But there are many in Malmö who do not use the bridge – either because it is prohibitively expensive (510DKK or £58.25 for the car toll and 160 SEK or £12.31 for a single train ticket from Malmö to Copenhagen), or because of train delays. 'It's too expensive to go over,' said one man taking a rest from cycling on the quayside in Malmö. He recently waited five hours, on midsummer eve, to get a train across the bridge. 'It doesn't work. It's so often [that the train gets delayed]. You can forget about commuting to Copenhagen – unless you have your own boat.'
Scotsman
5 hours ago
- Scotsman
SNP accused of deceitful strategy after 'grotesque' plans to cut 12,000 jobs
Sign up to our Politics newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Scotland's most senior trade unionist has accused SNP ministers of deceitful behaviour amid claims thousands of job cuts will take place alongside public service improvements - in a strategy branded 'grotesque'. Trade unionists have been put 'on alert' and have hit out at Finance Secretary Shona Robison effectively ending the Scottish Government's policy of no compulsory redundancies. This came after she admitted that if not enough jobs were cut over the next five years through other means, workers would be forced into losing their employment. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Finance Secretary Shona Robison (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell) | Getty Images Ms Robison made the admission as she set out almost £5 billion of savings and cuts needed by 2030. These include £2.6bn for the Government's day-to-day revenue budget, with the gaping hole emerging due to spending plans significantly outweighing the funding Holyrood is poised to bring in, largely from Westminster. The strategy includes controversial plans to whittle down the devolved public sector workforce, which stands around 550,000 employees, by 0.5 per cent every year for the next five years - losing around 12,000 roles. The Finance Secretary has stressed 'no compulsory redundancies will be maintained as the default position'. But she added 'as a last resort ... compulsory redundancy will be considered'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Scotland's devolved workforce includes NHS and college workers. STUC general secretary Roz Foyer told The Scotsman that rolling back the policy on no compulsory redundancies was 'a kick in the teeth for public sector workers' and pointed the blame at choices made by John Swinney's Government. STUC general secretary Roz Foyer with First Minister John Swinney | Jane Barlow/PA Wire She said: 'To reverse this policy after 14 years, while UK government funding is increasing, will only undermine faith in genuine public sector reform. 'It's due to the Scottish Government's own inaction – their own failings - on progressive taxation and redistributing wealth to pay for our public services that we are now in the grotesque situation of up to 12,000 workers paying with their jobs.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Ms Foyer rejected a claim in the long-delayed medium-term financial strategy 'the wage bill needs to be more sustainable going forward', alongside a warning it would be 'essential to constrain this growth in spending to affordable levels'. She said: 'The idea that Scotland's public sector is full of largesse is simply not borne out by the facts. In the last 15 years, Scotland's public sector has fallen from 24 per cent of the workforce to less than 22 per cent.' The STUC chief has warned Mr Swinney's Government that 'to govern is to choose'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad She said: 'We know the public finances are tight. But to simply cut jobs and make our public services weaker, despite their insistence to the contrary, is a duplicity that should make ministers blush. 'Whilst we embrace technological advancements that make the world of work more streamlined, we don't accept this should mean a reduction in headcount. 'Whether it be reducing NHS waiting times, providing dignified social care, tackling violence in our schools, or restoring faith in local government, our public services need more people, not less. That requires a commitment to increasing tax revenue, something this financial strategy was sorely lacking. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Trade unionists have been put 'on alert' over the Scottish Government's threat at removing its no compulsory redundancies policy 'The Scottish Government should be on notice that unions are on alert and are clear that any reforms must be centred on improving and protecting the quality of our public services and the conditions of our vital public sector workers.' The Scottish Government's public sector pay policy states 'Scotland's public sector is larger and better paid when compared to the rest of the UK and has had a commitment to no compulsory redundancies since 2007'. The document adds: 'The larger size of the workforce is both in terms of the share of the economy and the share of total employment. The public sector accounts for 22.2 per cent of employment in Scotland, compared to 17.8 per cent across the UK. ' The Scottish Government's bill for public sector pay, including local government, is estimated to reach almost £29bn in 2025-26 and is expected to soar to £32bn by 2030 without intervention to cut the size of the workforce. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A spokesperson for the First Minister told The Scotsman that 'over the course of 15 years', Holyrood had experienced 'some very difficult settlements from the UK government'. The spokesperson added: 'We're disappointed with the most recent settlement as set out by [Chancellor] Rachel Reeves. If our funding had kept up to pace with the average of the UK government departments, I think we'd be about £1bn better off within three years.
