Private equity firm Penta Investments has made an offer for German insolvent drug store chain Schlecker, less than a month after buying a 40 percent stake in Polish retailer EM&F, Reuters reported. "We made a non-binding offer on Friday last week," a spokesman for Penta told Reuters on Friday, confirming a report in German weekly magazine Der Spiegel. He declined to provide details of the offer. Unlisted Schlecker, which competes with privately held peers Rossmann and dm, filed for insolvency in January after struggling to secure funds against a gloomy economic backdrop.

Spain’s centre-right government, shaken by last week’s fall in Spanish sovereign bond prices and the stock market after its first budget, has signalled an immediate drive to restore confidence among investors and European leaders with further economic reforms, the Financial Times reported.

Europe is searching for something to get growth going again and pull the eurozone’s heavily indebted countries out of their troubles — but with little luck, the Daily Herald reported on an Associated Press story. Unemployment and manufacturing indicators suggest the 17 countries that use the euro are headed for an official recession. Adding to these worrying signs is the realization that many of the traditional tools to give growth a shove — government spending, tax cuts and lower central bank interest rates — are off the table.

The National Asset Management Agency approved 113 of 114 applications for rental reductions sought by tenants of Nama debtors last year, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has confirmed, the Irish Times reported. Last December, Nama issued a guidance note on upward-only commercial leases, following Mr Noonan’s announcement that the Government had abandoned plans to scrap upward-only rent reviews.

Switzerland agreed Thursday to a revised tax deal with Germany under which it would pay billions of dollars on funds hidden in its banks by German tax dodgers, the latest step in an international charm offensive that is meant to salvage at least some of the country’s famous banking secrecy, the International Herald Tribune reported.

European Central Bank president Mario Draghi maintained a cautious public stance yesterday on the Government’s effort to restructure some of its banking debt, saying the State must meet standing contracts and commitments, the Irish Times reported. While senior euro zone sources say technical work is ongoing on a deal to revise Anglo Irish Bank’s promissory note scheme, Mr Draghi declined two opportunities to say whether he supported Dublin’s campaign.

Spain continued to find itself in the market's cross hairs Thursday, as mounting concerns over the economy sparked a sharp slide in the country's bonds and led to an evaporation of the effect of the European Central Bank's generous cash injection, The Wall Street Journal reported. The rout in Spanish bonds weighed heavily on financial markets, with the euro coming under pressure, stocks falling and Italian bond yields rising sharply.

It wasn't so long ago that people viewed Q-Cells as an energy company of the future. At one point, it was the world's largest manufacturer of solar cells and quarter after quarter, it topped analysts' expectations. The company proved to be a money-making machine even during the financial crisis, with some believing it might one day grow to become part of Germany's DAX index of benchmark companies on the stock exchange. But Q-Cells' insolvency comes as a great shock to the Germany's solar industry, Spiegel Online reported.

A 77-year-old Greek man took his life in Athens's central Syntagma Square early Wednesday, police said, in what appeared to be a protest against a deepening economic crisis that has coincided with a rising national suicide rate, The Wall Street Journal reported.

European rules on state aid have jeopardised small UK companies’ access to venture capital funding worth hundreds of millions of pounds each year, placing further strain on a sector already starved of credit, the Financial Times reported. Under a measure included in the Finance Bill, venture capital trusts that invest in small growth companies could lose generous tax benefits as a result of a new cap on state-backed investment sources. At present, VCTs offer 30 per cent upfront tax relief on investments of up to £200,000 a year, as well as tax-free dividends and capital gains.