The European Commission has reprimanded Austria and Romania for breaking European Union limits on government spending — as Austria deals with the financial fall-out of months of political deadlock and Romania's long-running fiscal problems drag on, Politico reported. Under EU fiscal rules, a country's deficit — the difference between a government’s revenues and expenditures — cannot exceed 3 percent of the country's gross domestic product. Both countries went through a long period of political crisis this year. But their situations are very different.

Helaba and other German lenders have paid millions of euros in recent weeks to settle claims by the administrator of former real estate tycoon René Benko’s Signa Prime Selection AG, the Luxembourg Times reported. Helaba paid €26 million at the end of May as part of an out-of court settlement, Signa Prime’s insolvency administrator said in a report to creditors dated Monday. Other payments include €3 million received from Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG and €2.1 million from Bayerische Landesbank.

Embattled motorcycle maker KTM once again dodged financial ruin, just days ahead of a make-or-break deadline in its court-ordered restructuring, ADVPulse.com reported. The company needed €600 million in emergency funding to meet a court-mandated requirement to repay 30% of what it owes creditors who had filed more than €2 billion in claims. The payout is a key condition of KTM’s ongoing recovery plan — and for a while, it didn’t appear that loan would materialize.

Austrian prosecutors said on Friday they had placed a woman under investigation on suspicion of helping property tycoon Rene Benko hide assets from administrators and creditors dealing with his real estate group Signa's collapse, Reuters reported. Benko has been in custody for more than three months as the Central Prosecutors' Office for Economic Crimes and Corruption (WKStA) continues its investigation into whether assets that should have gone towards paying back creditors were hidden in a trust of which his immediate family are beneficiaries.

Creditors of Austrian motorbike maker KTM AG approved a restructuring plan that will write off 70% of the company’s debt and resume production with the help of new investments, Bloomberg News reported. KTM will need to secure €548 million ($575 million) of funding by May 23 to pay creditors, according to the plan that was approved on Tuesday by a majority of creditors. An extended circle of shareholders will provide additional financing to resume production, the company’s parent, Pierer Mobility, said in a statement. Share of Pierer Mobility rallied 11% in Zurich after the announcement.

Administrators of bankrupt Signa Prime Selection AG are preparing to launch the sale of the Vienna Park Hyatt and adjoining luxury retail premises, including Prada’s flagship store, Bloomberg News reported. Real estate investment bank Eastdil Secured LLC has been appointed to offer the properties that are expected to attract bids in the region of €350 million ($361 million) to €370 million, two people said, asking not to be identified as the process is not yet public.

The hearing to present the current status of the insolvency proceedings around KTM and its subsidiaries revealed that the companies have nearly €2.4 billion of collective debt, MotoMatters.com reported. But that Pierer Mobility is in talks with 23 investors to save the company. The hearing established that there are grounds to believe that KTM will be saved as a going concern, and will be able to repay the statutory minimum 30% of debts owed to creditors within the 2 year time period required by Austrian law. But the scale of KTM's financial problems are huge.