Germany

Wet chemicals equipment processing specialist, RENA, has started insolvency proceedings under self-administration as it attempts to restructure after failing to gain a financing solution for debts encountered at a subsidiary, SH+E, PV-Tech reported. The company said that the insolvency proceedings only related to its German operations of RENA GmbH, while other domestic and foreign subsidiaries of the RENA Group would continue operating as normal. Jürgen Gutekunst, RENA founder and shareholder said: “Our core business at RENA has developed positively over recent months.

Sunways, a German subsidiary of stricken Chinese firm LDK Solar, has entered insolvency proceedings for the second time, PV-Tech reported. The module, cell and inverter manufacturer said it would file for insolvency on 21 March at a court in Konstanz. The company has said it is looking to use a restructuring period to negotiate with creditors and continue to function as a listed company. Sunways said it had already begun talking to potential investors. "The board is already in talks with potential investors and will continue these talks regardless of the filing," Sunways said in a statement.

IVG Immobilien AG (IVG), once Germany’s biggest real estate company, will be handed over to creditors after lenders approved a plan to restructure 3.2 billion euros ($4.4 billion) of debt, Bloomberg News reported. Creditors voted today in a court-supervised poll in favor of a debt-to-equity swap and capital increase that will take place in mid-2014, IVG said in a statement today. The company said on Feb. 24 that the swap will allow it to cut its debt by 2.2 billion euros.

Germany’s highest court ruled on Tuesday that the country’s government may participate in a fund set up to help financially stricken countries in the euro zone, the International New York Times reported. The decision is a defeat for skeptics of the euro and removes lingering doubts about whether Germany will contribute resources to a rescue fund that has been crucial to the survival of the euro zone.

France and Germany are squabbling over who should foot the bill for Europe’s banking union, with Paris fearing its banks will pay the biggest share towards a €55bn rescue fund, the Financial Times reported. As the EU enters a potentially decisive week in talks on a central system for handling bank crises, France is fighting plans to make its sector of big universal banks the leading contributors to the common insurance plan.

The Nuerburgring, the German race track known as Green Hell for its challenging Formula One course, was bought by an auto-parts maker two years after the former owner and operator filed for bankruptcy protection. The acquisition by Capricorn Group values the 379-hectare (937-acre) property at more than 100 million euros ($139 million), lawyers managing the insolvency of owner Nuerburgring GmbH said yesterday in a statement. That includes 25 million euros that the Dusseldorf-based buyer will spend to further develop the site.

German banks are to escape scrutiny of their residential mortgage portfolios in a sweeping review of lenders’ balance sheets by the European Central Bank, even as regulators express concerns over a property bubble in the eurozone’s largest economy, the Financial Times reported. Banks in Germany including Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank do not have to hand over details of loans made to homeowners for the ECB’s asset quality review, which aims to shine a light on eurozone banks’ portfolios, according to people familiar with the process.

Foreign investors are looking to snap up what is left of Germany's once-booming solar industry, in time to benefit from an expected global recovery in the sector, Reuters reported. During the last decade, Germany pioneered the solar industry by throwing billions of euros in subsidies at it, making it the world's largest market for solar panels in the process.

The management of German rooftop PV installer and module manufacturer Centrosolar has unveiled an insolvency plan, which has been approved by the company’s creditors’ committee. The main thrust of the plan is that Centrosolar will in future focus on the US market, trading as Centrosolar America. The plan still requires several further stages of approval before it can be implemented, PV-Tech reported. Centrosolar said that in order to save costs, the parent company will be “slimmed down” considerably.

A study by a leading economic think tank has shown the problem of wealth inequality has deteriorated in Germany in recent years. In no other eurozone nation are there such big differences between the rich and the poor, Deutsche Welle reported. The survey by the Berlin-based German Institute for Economic Research showed on Wednesday that the gap between the rich and poor in Europe's biggest economy had been widening steadily in recent years.