Germany

Germany plans to sell up to a quarter of its 20% stake in Lufthansa over the coming weeks, the German finance agency said on Monday, citing positive developments at the bailed-out airline, Reuters reported. Lufthansa shares fell as much as 4.9% to 8.81 euros in early trade after the announcement. The state's 20% stake was acquired for 300 million euros ($353.67 million) as part of a bailout for the German carrier as the company and the entire aviation sector took a battering from the coronavirus crisis.

Following the unanimous approval of the insolvency plan by the insolvency creditors of Adler Modemärkte AG at the debate and voting session in court on 27 July 2021 and the insolvency plan having become legally binding in the meantime, the company now intends to implement the capital measures stipulated in the insolvency plan, according to a press release. First, the share capital of Adler Modemärkte AG will be reduced to zero through a capital cut to be carried out in accordance with the provisions on the simplified capital reduction pursuant to § 229 et seq.

A former top Wirecard shareholder is seeking damages over the collapse of the payments group in a landmark lawsuit that threatens the compensation bondholders and banks are also seeking, Irish Times reported. Union Investment, Germany’s third-largest asset manager, has filed a lawsuit in Munich against Wirecard’s administrator, which over the past year has been selling the remaining assets of the failed payments group. The asset manager said it suffered €243 million in losses when Wirecard filed for insolvency in June 2020.

Thyssenkrupp on Wednesday flagged a cash gap of up to 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) for its full year, citing restructuring costs and higher investments, as the German conglomerate continues efforts to streamline its businesses, Reuters reported. Shares of the steel-to-submarines group fell as much as 7.7% on the outlook for free cash flow before mergers and acquisitions, which is now expected to be a negative 1.2-1.5 billion euros in the year to September.

The German government agreed Tuesday to provide 58 billion euros ($68 billion) to help rebuild regions hit by devastating floods last month, the Associated Press reported. Chancellor Angela Merkel and the heads of Germany’s 16 states approved the state flood aid package, which still needs parliament’s endorsement. “This is significantly more than we had for previous floods,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin. More than 180 people died in Germany and hundreds more were injured in the July 14-15 floods, which also claimed lives in neighboring Belgium.

Bayer lost a third appeal against U.S. court verdicts that awarded damages to customers blaming their cancers on use of its glyphosate-based weedkillers, leaving the German drugs and pesticides group to pin hopes for legal relief on the U.S. Supreme Court, Reuters reported. A California appeals court yesterday upheld an $86 million verdict that found Bayer responsible for a couple's cancer after using Bayer's glyphosate-based Roundup against weeds.

Germany plans to introduce a waiver on bankruptcy filing for businesses affected by last month’s devastating floods, the Justice Ministry said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Parliament will have to approve the waiver, which expires at the end of October, in a vote. “We have to prevent a situation where businesses must file for bankruptcy simply because they could not access financial aid in time,” Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht said in a statement. German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday that rebuilding would cost more than 6 billion euros ($7.11 billion).

The German economy returned to growth in the second quarter but bounced back less strongly than expected amid supply chain bottlenecks thatare hitting industry, data showed on Friday, Reuters reported. Europe's largest economy grew by 1.5% quarter on quarter, compared with a revised contraction of 2.1% in the first quarter, and by 9.2% on the year, the Federal Statistics Office said. A Reuters poll had forecast increases of 2.0% and 9.6% respectively.

Germany’s top court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal by two British bankers over their conviction in a massive tax evasion case, confirming that the so-called cum-ex transactions they used were illegal, the Associated Press reported. The Federal Court of Justice also confirmed that the seizure of 14 million euros ($16.5 million) from one of the defendants and about 176 million euros ($207 million) from Hamburg-based private bank M.M. Warburg was justified. The ruling sets a key precedent for future trials in the “cum-ex” scandal involving hundreds of suspects.