Germany

The administrator of insolvent German bookseller Weltbild said on Wednesday he had broken off talks with investor Paragon Partners and agreed to do a deal with restructuring specialist Droege International Group instead, Reuters reported. Droege will participate in a 20 million euro ($27.1 million) capital increase at Weltbild and in return receive a 60 percent stake in the group, administrator Arndt Geiwitz said. It will also give Weltbild an unspecified loan.

In 2007, the German government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel voted to lift the retirement age gradually to 67 from 65, in line with policies being adopted by the United States and other countries concerned about the costs of supporting an aging population. Economists say that move not only stabilized Germany’s public pension system but also put Berlin in a position to insist during the subsequent financial crisis that other European governments follow suit, the International New York Times reported. But now, with the worst of the economic downturn apparently past, and Ms.

The German government won't take on new debt in 2015—the first time since 1969 it has avoided doing so, according to draft budget figures, as Berlin seeks to demonstrate the benefits of structural economic changes to its struggling euro-zone partners, The Wall Street Journal reported. Germany has become Europe's growth engine with solid finances over the past few years, after a social-welfare overhaul implemented 10 years ago helped the country to boost economic and job growth.

Photon Publishing, which produces the prominent solar industry periodical, Photon International, has entered insolvency proceedings in the court of Aachen, Germany, PV-Tech reported. According to details of the filing published by the court, Andreas Ringstmeier has been appointed temporary insolvency lawyer for the proceedings. News of Photon Publishing’s insolvency come only weeks after its parent company, Photon Holding, also began temporary insolvency proceedings due to what the company said was an unpaid tax bill.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition plans to introduce a minimum wage next year that some analysts and business groups are warning could lead to sharp reductions in the number of internships, the Financial Times reported. The legislation, which is expected to come before the Bundestag in the next few weeks, will require employers to pay everyone at least €8.50 an hour from the age of 18. That fulfils a longstanding goal of the political left and trade unions. Yet a less appreciated consequence of the legislation is that it would drive up the cost for many companies to use interns.

The German economy may be thriving, but Germans aren't letting go of their financial angst. Their latest gripe: rising house prices, The Wall Street Journal reported. A healthy property market would be good news in many countries. But in Germany, where even the affluent often prefer to rent rather than buy their homes, property price increases of up to 10% a year in some cities are causing nationwide anguish as they feed into higher rents. "Lynch yuppies," reads graffiti on Berlin's fashionable Sophienstrasse, across from a scaffold-covered apartment building undergoing renovation.

Competition to acquire the French energy equipment maker Alstom was expected to intensify on Monday, as Siemens of Germany and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan were said to be preparing to make a joint offer that could pressure General Electric to improve its $13.5 billion bid, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. G.E.’s bid for Alstom’s power generation and transmission business, made in April, has been opposed by French government officials even though Alstom’s board approved the deal.

Deutsche Bank warned investors on Thursday that continuing investigations by financial regulators into potential manipulation of the $5-trillion-a-day currency markets could have a “material” financial effect on the bank, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. Investigations begun last year by regulators in Germany, Britain, the United States and elsewhere have not resulted in any criminal charges, but more than two dozen traders have been suspended or terminated as a result of internal inquires at some of the world’s largest banks.

The head of Germany's savings banks association has attacked the European Central Bank on the eve of a historic decision on Thursday that could see the central bank’s key interest rates fall to new record lows, the Financial Times reported. Georg Fahrenschon, head of the Berlin-based group that represents 418 Sparkassen across the country, told German public radio station Deutschlandfunk on Wednesday that if low interest rates stop savers putting money aside "then we have big, big problems".

Deutsche Bank AG plans to sell €8 billion ($11 billion) of new shares in a bid to quell concerns about its capital buffers in a challenging business and regulatory environment, The Wall Street Journal reported. The move comes in the midst of a health check of the European banking sector, and as Germany's largest lender seeks to grab market share and improve its position as a global investment and retail bank.