German prosecutors said on Thursday they would press criminal charges against the family behind drugstore chain Schlecker, which folded four years ago, Reuters reported. The chain's founder, 71-year-old Anton Schlecker, is accused of having siphoned assets from the company on 36 occasions while in full knowledge of its looming bankruptcy, according to the prosecutors' office in the city of Stuttgart. It did not provide a figure on the sums involved, but a spokesman for the prosecutors said several million euros had been illegally diverted from funds available to repay creditors.

China is cutting back on mining machinery as its economy slips. The United Arab Emirates and other Middle Eastern countries are no longer awash in oil money, putting luxury car brands at risk. Russia, still facing Western sanctions, cannot buy as much high-tech energy equipment, the International New York Times reported. The downshift in the emerging markets is leaving Germany vulnerable — and, by extension, Europe.

EON, Germany’s largest utility, reported its biggest annual loss after writing down the value of its coal and gas-fired power plants by billions of euro. Its net loss more than doubled to €7 billion in 2015 from a year earlier, the company said. That was worse than the consensus figure among analysts for a €6.4 billion loss. Germany’s shift to renewable energy is hurting utilities as solar and wind plants get priority access to the grid, squeezing margins at traditional coal and gas-fired stations.

Europe’s largest economy is experiencing a best-of-times worst-of-times moment, with solid growth and its biggest budget surplus since unification overshadowed by growing jitters about the months ahead, the Irish Times reported. The federal statistics office released figures on Tuesday showing “solid and consistent” growth of 1.7 per cent last year and a combined € 19.4 billion surplus on all federal, state and local public budgets. “That is, in absolute terms, the highest since unification”, the statistics office said, around 0.6 per cent of overall economic output.

The cost of insuring Deutsche Bank debt against default leapt on Thursday, while costs for other European banks also climbed as their shares plunged to multi-year lows, Reuters reported. Credit default swaps (CDS), used to insure debt, now imply a 24.5 percent probability that Germany's biggest bank will default on its subordinated, or junior, debt, according to data provider Markit, while on senior debt the probability has risen to 17 percent.

Specialist PV manufacturing equipment supplier Singulus Technologies has highlighted the essential support it needs from shareholders and bondholders to avert liquidity issues that would force the company into insolvency, PVTech reported. The company is planning to hold several bondholder meetings and an Extraordinary General Meeting in an attempt to gain support for balance sheet restructuring that will allow further corporate restructuring. Read more.

Deutsche Bank AG became the largest lender in at least four years to feel compelled to reassure investors and employees that it has enough cash to pay its debts, Bloomberg News reported. Germany’s biggest bank said in a statement Monday that it has more-than-sufficient means to pay coupons on its riskiest debt both this year and in 2017.

Days after central banks initiated a stress test of two trade-plumbing firms in Europe, LCH.Clearnet Group Ltd. said a German bank had defaulted on its financial obligations at the clearinghouse operator, The Wall Street Journal reported. Martin Pluves, chief executive officer at LCH, declared Frankfurt-based Maple Bank GmbH to be a “defaulter” in a Feb. 8 notice posted to the clearinghouse’s website. Maple, whose parent company Maple Financial Group Inc.

Two of Europe's most powerful central bankers have called on the eurozone to form its own treasury and push forward with a quantum leap in integration to secure the single currency's future, The Telegraph reported. Germany's Jens Weidmann and France's newly appointed François Villeroy de Galhau urged member states to move towards a "comprehensive sharing of sovereignty" which would include a common 19-member treasury and an "independent fiscal council" with a eurozone parliament.

Deutsche Bank, confirming that it would post a record loss for 2015, said on Thursday that members of its management board would not receive bonuses for the year and that shareholders should not expect a dividend until 2017 at the earliest, the International New York Times reported. The giant German bank reported a loss of 6.8 billion euros, or $7.4 billion, in 2015, as it set aside money to cover lawsuits and official investigations. It also suffered a decline in revenue in its investment banking unit.