Germany

German developer and publisher BitComposer has filed for insolvency. The studio claimed its own problems stemmed from “the financial difficulties of its suppliers in game development”. As a result, it said, it could not complete work on its new titles and subsequently missed financial targets. BitComposer had applied for a protective shield procedure on September 26th. This protected the company from foreclosure from creditors, while also allowing it to develop an insolvency plan. During this period the firm was able to publish additional titles.

Germany could be left with a €500 million compensation bill after a Munich court ruled that property lender Hypo Real Estate (HRE) falsified accounts and misled investors about its exposure to the financial crisis, the Irish Times reported. The German lender and its Dublin subsidiary Depfa went into a tailspin after the collapse of Lehmann Brothers in September 2008. The HRE group survived only after a state-led bailout before it was eventually nationalised.

German Burger King restaurants that were shut down last month in a row between their operator and the U.S. fast food company will re-open this week, Burger King Germany said on Monday, Reuters reported. Twenty-six of the 89 outlets will open their doors again on Monday and the rest by Wednesday, it said in a statement. Burger King had told Yi-Ko Holding, formerly the biggest operator of the restaurants in Germany, to shut down the restaurants immediately last month, saying the franchisee had violated its rules on the treatment of employees.

Germany’s family-owned companies, the backbone of the country’s economic strength, fear they may have to scale back investments and cut jobs if a top court this week orders an overhaul of inheritance tax rules, the Financial Times reported. The federal constitutional court in Karlsruhe is set to decide on Wednesday whether it is fair that beneficiaries of inherited corporate wealth in Germany enjoy sweeping tax exemptions. Around 90 per cent of businesses in Germany are family-owned, providing about 60 per cent of jobs with social insurance.

Germany's Yi-Ko Holding, formerly the biggest operator of Burger King restaurants in the country, has filed for insolvency, Yi-Ko's lawyers said, putting 3,000 jobs at risk. Burger King had told Yi-Ko three weeks ago to shut down its 89 restaurants across Germany immediately, saying the franchisee had violated its rules on the treatment of employees. The move did not affect the remaining 599 Burger King restaurants in Germany.

Berlin has backed the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council’s warning about the dangers of the Government departing from its path of consolidation and reform, the Irish Times reported. In a paper the federal finance ministry said Ireland’s “awareness of its problems and reform courage” were crucial in identifying and tackling its challenges. All the more reason, it added, not to let up now with consolidation. “I would be unrealistic to expect macroeconomic imbalances built up over a long time to be addressed in a short period,” the paper noted.

Four months before he aims to become prime minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras is using the example of Germany’s post-World War II debt relief to bolster his case for a writedown on his country’s liabilities toward euro area member states and the European Central Bank, Bloomberg News reported. “While generosity was extended to Germany, Germany refuses to extend the same generosity,” the 40-year-old opposition leader said in a speech in Athens today, referring to a 1953 deal to write off 50 percent of some of Germany’s external debt.

German airline Lufthansa says it has cancelled about half of its flights after pilots went on strike in an ongoing dispute over retirement benefits, the International New York Times reported. The airline, Germany's largest, said Monday that 1,350 of its 2,800 flights scheduled through the strike's end Tuesday at midnight have been cancelled, affecting 150,000 passengers. The strike was primarily focused on Lufthansa's inner-Europe flights on Monday but was to be extended to long-haul flights Tuesday.

Germany’s central bank has warned that corporate debt is becoming overpriced and threatens the financial stability of Europe’s biggest economy, the Financial Times reported. The comments from the Bundesbank come as the European Central Bank considers buying corporate bonds to expand its balance sheet and stave off the threat of economic stagnation in the eurozone.

German television maker Metz has filed for insolvency, a spokesman for the company said on Wednesday, adding that about 600 jobs would be affected, Reuters reported. Joachim Exner, who co-managed the insolvency of German peer Loewe, has been appointed as insolvency administrator, the spokesman said, adding that the company's production and customer services would continue for the time being. Peer Loewe sought protection from creditors in July 2013 and filed for insolvency in October after a strategy to combat the economic downturn by focusing on premium customers failed.