Daily Archives: February 1, 2022

Millions of people have gotten a break from paying their federal student loans during the pandemic. But there's been no relief for millions of others with private student loans who may not realize bankruptcy could be an option.

"For folks that have lost their jobs during the pandemic that are struggling for money that are still struggling to stay afloat, bankruptcy might be the best option for them," said Mike Pierce, the executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center. "Particularly, if they're already going to file bankruptcy because of medical debt or credit card debt, being able to escape these often very high-interest rate private student loans is a lifesaver."

The Student Borrower Protection Center estimates $50 billion in private student loans taken on by more than 2.6 million borrowers is eligible to be discharged in bankruptcy.

"Our investigation found evidence that for years, big and small companies across the country have been telling borrowers that they're not eligible to discharge their loans and bankruptcy, while also telling their investors that law actually says you can discharge these in bankruptcy," Pierce said.

Navient, a loan servicer and a group of 39 state attorneys general, recently reached a nearly $2 billion settlement. The servicer is denying any wrongdoing.

Attorney Christie D. Arkovich has been helping people file for bankruptcy with their student loans since 2016 but says only a small number of people are aware bankruptcy is an option.

"Normally when we have a client come to us they're either in default on a student loan, or they're making payments and it just not making any headway," Arkovich said. "So the people who this wouldn't be for people who can easily afford their loans. Most of our clients cannot afford their loans. They're there another mortgage payment, basically."

Arkovich's clients range from people in their 30s to people in their 60s. Most have student loans with high-interest rates from the mid-2000s.

"We had a client who owed around $130,000, and so when she first came to me, she was paying $1,300 dollars a month, and it was interest only," Arkovich said. "So, she realized this is a forever debt. She's not making a dent in it, it's never going away. So, we reopen an older bankruptcy and we ended up settling that for $24,000, so that was less than, what, 20, 22 cents on the dollar for payments very, very low."

Arkovich says one of the biggest concerns for the people she works with is how a co-borrower on the student loan will be affected. The settlement can work out so that the servicer won't go after that person.

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Bankruptcy may be an option for those with high-interest student loans - The Denver Channel

Soaring natural gas prices have contributed to the closure of 20 egg farms and 10 broiler farms in Ukraine, Sergey Karpenko, general director of the Ukraine poultry union, said during a press conference in Kyiv.

Photo: Tetiana Shevereva

In early 2020, Ukrainian poultry producers had to spend on average 1.6 hryvnias (US$0.059) to produce 1 kg of broiler meat. In early 2021, this figure increased to 2.11 hryvnias (US$0.075), jumping to 6.4 hryvnias (US$0.23) in December, Karpenko said, adding that this increase is coupled with a sharp rise in the price of feed.

He added that small and medium-sized poultry producers are at risk of closure due to the price hike. Currently, Ukraine exports 30-40% of the produced broiler meat and eggs. However, the further rise in production costs is likely to make Ukraine exports uncompetitive on the global market, which would hit the entire poultry industry, he added.

It is believed that small and medium-sized poultry farms account for 25-30% of Ukraines poultry production.

Over the course of 2021, European wholesale gas prices rose by more than 400%, setting new records. In early January, European gas prices jumped after the breakdown in security talks between Russia and the US deepened concerns about supplies. The picture is believed to be similar across Eastern and Central Europe, where harsh winter conditions prompt poultry farmers to spend more money on heating.

Dark clouds hang over Ukrainian egg industry The Ukrainian egg industry has been on a dream run but there are major problems looming on the horizon. Since the outbreak of the economic crisis in 2014 many companies have been under pressure with the large Avangard agricultural holding now hitting stormy weather. Read more...

"Poultry companies use gas at fattening complexes. The process [of growing poultry] takes 1.5-2 months, during which it is necessary to maintain a certain temperature at the poultry houses," said Alexander Bakumenko, chairman of Ukraines poultry union, adding that previously, natural gas accounted for 5% of production costs, but now this share stands at 30%.

As estimated by Bakumenko, this situation could push poultry farmers to raise prices by 15-20 hryvnias (US$0.53-US$0.71) to offset losses. However, he warned, this would be bad for both domestic consumption and export supplies.

Not only did poultry producers raise concerns over the rising price of natural gas. Ukraine dairy processing plants may have to stop operations in case of a further rise in prices, the Ukraine Union of Dairy Companies said, estimating that natural gas accounts for roughly 25% of production costs.

In this background, the Ukraine government has rolled out plans to limit the price of natural gas on the market, but so far, this proposal covers only bread producers.

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Costly gas drives Ukraine poultry production to bankruptcy - Poultry World

The Montana Department of Revenue says it's immune from claims that it waged a bankruptcy battle that caused former billionaire Timothy Blixseth hundreds of millions in losses.

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

Jan. 26, 2022, 8:45 PM;Updated: Jan. 26, 2022, 10:11 PM

The Montana Department of Revenue says its immune from claims that it waged a bankruptcy battle that caused former billionaire Timothy Blixseth hundreds of millions in losses.

Although the state partially waived its sovereign immunity to participate as a creditor in Blixseths involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings, it hasnt consented to be a defendant under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada, it said in a filing Tuesday.

That immunity should protect Montana from facing Blixseths Dec. 23 lawsuit, which accuses the Department of Revenue of bad faith by continuing to pursue the bankruptcy ...

2022 The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

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Montana Vies to Ax Suit Over Businessman's Involuntary Bankruptcy (1) - Bloomberg Law

Actor Amitabh Bachchan showed his pride in son Abhishek Bachchan after politician Milind Deora praised him in a tweet. Deora had taken to Twitter and shared an interview of Abhishek, where he had talked about the difficult time in his life when their family was bankrupt, and how he had left his education to help his father.

Deora shared the interview and captioned it, In case you missed it, sharing these words of wisdom from my friend @juniorbachchan Bollywoods most underrated actor whose best is yet to come. The actor was facing bankruptcy in 1999 when his venture, Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd (ABCL), faced major losses.

Amitabh Bachchan quote-tweeted the post and wrote, Yo baby, thats the way we do it!

In the Brut interview, Abhishek had opened up about how he left his education in Boston university to help his father out. My father was going through this really rough time, he said, explaining that their business had not taken off. He also revealed that he didnt feel that he was qualified to help in any way, but he felt that he needed to be there for his father. He recalled on how they decided to make it work, that they would fight through this painful situation.

Abhishek also mentioned that Big B went over to Yash Chopras house, explaining the dire situation, and that evening, he was offered Mohabbatein. Abhishek said that his parents had always brought him up to not have a backup and not be a quitter. He explained that if a person knows they dont have a safety net, theyll just work hard and not give up.

When he was on Ranveer Singhs show The Big Picture, Abhishek elaborated further and said, I cant be sitting in Boston and my father doesnt know how hes going to get dinner. Thats how bad it was, and he said it publicly. He had to borrow money from his staff to put food on the table. I just felt morally obliged to be with him.

Abhishek Bachchan was last seen in the film Bob Biswas, while Amitabh Bachchan has several films including Brahmastra in the pipeline.

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Amitabh Bachchan shares Abhisheks video talking about their bankruptcy, how they bounced back: Thats the way we do it - The Indian Express

We are continuing to see fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the tech industry, with one of the latest developments coming out from France. Sigfox a high-profile IoT startup that had raised over $300 million in venture funding and had ambitions to build a global communications network using a new approach to wireless networking has filed for bankruptcy protection in France, citing slow sales of its products and challenging conditions in the IoT industry due to COVID-19.

It said it would be using the process, which will initially last six months, to seek a buyer to support Sigfoxs long-term development and propose to maintain jobs. It will continue operations in the meantime: Sixfox says says its network spans 75 countries, stitching together capacity from 75 carriers, and that it connects 20 million objects and sends 80 million messages per day.

The details for the bankruptcy were outlined in a statement provided to TechCrunch by the company. The statement also noted that business was being impacted by a shortage in electronic components.

The decision to place Sigfox under the protection of the Justice through this proceeding was made because of a slower-than-expected adoption cycle for its technology, despite effective shareholder support, it reads. In addition, the IoT sector has suffered from the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, slowing down activity over the past two years and putting the pressure on the electronic components market, now in shortage. These factors combined have strongly impacted the companys financial situation, in particular its debt level, which now makes it difficult to speed up the development of Sigfox and its worldwide recognized technology in an increasingly competitive market.

Sigfox had raised more than $300 million from a group of high-profile investors that included Salesforce, Intel, Samsung, NTT, SK Telecom, energy groups Total and Air Liquide, and many others. When we last covered the companys financing, a 150 million round in November 2016, it was valued at around 600 million ($670 million at todays rates). A profile of the company a year later described it as a unicorn that is, valued at over $1 billion.

According to Sigfoxs statement, the receivership/rehabilitation proceeding was opened in the Commercial Court of Toulouse at the request of the CEO, and it pertains both to Sigfox and its French subsidiary Sigfox France. It will last for an initial observation period of six months, the notice said. (That notice does not appear to be on the companys own news pages, where the most recent update is from earlier this month and seemed to imply business as usual, announcing a partnership with two semiconductor companies to advance its networking solutions.)

This procedure will allow the Sigfox group to continue all its commercial activities to deliver its clients and meet their needs, under the authority of mandators designated by the Court, the notice reads.

For those who had been keeping tabs on the IoT market out of Europe, and Sigfox in particular, this development should not come as too much of a surprise. As Chris points out in the French Tech Journal, auditors for the company had issued a stark warning in September that year that the company had to raise funding by the end of the year or risk insolvency.

That funding has yet to materialize.

Meanwhile, the companys finances speak for themselves. Public account filings for the company note that in the last financial year, the company posted a net loss of nearly 91 million on revenues of just over 24 million, and financial debts of 118 million.

Sigfox had been one of the bigger names in IoT to come out of Europe and its early and robust fundraising put it on the map among French startups attempting to deliver groundbreaking technology.

Sigfox emerged at a time when IoT was still very much a nascent concept, with little in the way of lucrative business models behind it, and much of IoT activity being pushed by carriers who looked at IoT as an enterprise play and way to sell capacity on their established mobile networks.

Sigfoxs unique claim was not just that it was building an IoT network, but that it was going to do so on a new kind of concept for harnessing power, making its networks, and the devices connected to it, considerably more sustainable and efficient. As we noted at the time, it was part of a bigger picture put forward by the companys then-head and founder, Ludovic Le Moan, about how Sigfoxs understanding of how power and communication worked related to Simulation theory.

[The simulation] is part of the vision that I have, and I want Sigfox to be able to stay true to this, he said at the time. This world is virtual. At the end of the day we are not living in the real world.

Le Moan parted ways with the company in February 2021, to be replaced by Jeremy Prince, who is the current CEO.

Despite the companys financial troubles, it seems that there is a business to be salvaged or saved here. Sigfox claims that its low cost and low energy technologies currently span across a global network that owned and operated by 75 operators (in other words, it seems to stitch together capacity from several other carriers for its own virtual network). That network, is says, covers a population of 1.4 billion people in 75 countries, and processes nearly 80 million messages per day generated by 20 million objects registered to its network. It says that it has commitments from 5,000 customers to deploy 50 million objects in total.

Well update this post as we learn more.

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Sigfox, the French IoT startup that had raised more than $300M, files for bankruptcy protection as it seeks a buyer - TechCrunch