German industrial production rose by less than economists had expected in July, fuelling concerns about whether the nascent recovery in the eurozone’s pandemic-stricken economy is running out of steam, the Financial Times reported. The 1.2 per cent month-on-month rise in German industrial output in July reported by the Federal Statistical Office on Monday was the third consecutive month of growth.

Deutsche Bank AG has submitted a bid for some of Wirecard AG’s German assets, but the administrator of the insolvent payments company considers it too low, people familiar with the matter said, Bloomberg News reported. The offer from Germany’s largest lender for Wirecard Bank and some related companies was one of several, the people said. All the non-binding bids were well below 100 million euros ($119 million), which Wirecard administrator Michael Jaffe sees as a minimum to proceed with a sale rather than a liquidation.

The district court of Munich has opened the insolvency proceedings regarding the assets of Wirecard, which were applied for on June 25, 2020, according to a note from the company, Crowdfund Insider reported. The current preliminary insolvency administrator Dr. jur. Michael Jaffé from the law firm JAFFÉ Rechtsanwälte was appointed as the insolvency administrator. A contract to sell Wirecard Brazil SA has already been signed and the sales process for the Wirecard North America Inc. subsidiary is said to be well advanced.

Germany extended another crisis tool to prevent corporate bankruptcies, a move that critics say will store up bigger problems later for Europe’s largest economy, Bloomberg News reported. The longer suspension on insolvency filings has raised alarm bells that it’s masking a growing credit risk that could explode into a wave of bankruptcies when the moratorium ends. It may also be creating a cohort of zombie companies that hold back investment and innovation and act as a drain on the economy.

The German economy contracted by a record 9.7% in the second quarter as consumer spending, company investments and exports all collapsed at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the statistics office said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The economic slump was much stronger than during the financial crisis more than a decade ago, and it represented the sharpest decline since Germany began to record quarterly GDP calculations in 1970, the office said.

The collapsed payments company Wirecard has let go more than half of its remaining staff in Germany and terminated the contracts of its management board members, its insolvency administrator said, Reuters reported. News of the layoffs came as Wirecard’s demise amid an accounting scandal entered a new phase, with the official opening of insolvency proceedings on Tuesday. Michael Jaffe, the insolvency administrator, said “far-reaching” cuts were needed to keep Wirecard’s core business operational.

German coalition parties have agreed to extend a freeze on insolvency rules put in place to avoid a wave of corporate bankruptcies due to the coronavirus crisis, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Speaking to reporters in Vienna, Scholz said his centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc sealed a compromise deal ahead of a coalition meeting scheduled later on Tuesday.

Wirecard inked a deal to sell its operations in Brazil, its insolvency administrator said on Friday, the first asset of global operations to sell after the company collapsed amid an accounting scandal earlier this year, Reuters reported. An agreement in principle has also been reached to sell some operations in Britain, and the process of selling its North American operations are well advanced with a deal expected “shortly”, the administrator said.

Concern is growing in Germany that a rule introduced as a part of the country’s emergency response to coronavirus is fuelling the creation of thousands of so-called zombie firms that could end up sapping the economy for years to come, the Financial Times reported. Under a government waiver introduced in March, German companies adversely affected by the pandemic do not have to file for insolvency. The rule was supposed to be phased out at the end of September, but justice minister Christine Lambrecht wants to extend it until next March.

There’s mounting scrutiny over the state-owned parent of BMW AG’s joint venture partner in China, Brilliance Auto Group Holdings Co. Investors are increasingly concerned about the Liaoning-based firm’s capacity to juggle its debt load as the pandemic weighs on profits, Bloomberg News reported. Concern is growing about the financial health of Brilliance Auto, the parent of Hong Kong-listed Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd., which manufactures vehicles with the German carmaker in China via a joint venture.