IVG Immobilien AG, the German property company seeking to restructure 3.2 billion euros ($4.3 billion) of debt, said creditors submitted a proposal that would wipe out most of its share capital. The shares fell as much as 26 percent, Bloomberg reported. Under the proposal, new shares would be issued in a debt-for-equity swap, the Bonn-based company said in a statement on Saturday evening. That would cut its share capital to 0.5 percent of the current value, IVG said.

While the country’s economy is often held up as a model, German banks are among Europe’s most troubled. They required a bailout bigger than the one American banks received, and many are still struggling to recover, the International Herald Tribune reported. But there is remarkably little discussion about fundamentally changing the structure of the German banking system.

Germany's Commerzbank saw its second-quarter profit slide as it continued to take losses on bad real estate and shipping loans - but the company's shares jumped after it said was making progress with its strategy of getting rid of costly non-core assets, the Associated Press reported. It said Thursday that it made a net profit of 43 million euros ($57 million) during the quarter, down 84 percent on the 270 million euros it made in the same period a year earlier.

Insolvent home improvement store chain Praktiker has secured financing to pay suppliers and keep shelves stocked as it seeks an investor, Reuters reported. Praktiker filed for insolvency last month after talks with creditors failed, triggering fears of heavy job losses. Administrators have kept the business running while reviewing options for the chain, a household name in Germany. "We reached an agreement on financing for the supply of goods following intensive negotiations with credit insurers, banks and suppliers," insolvency administrator Christopher Seagon said in a statement on Tuesday.

Following its bankruptcy filing a few weeks ago, PV specialist Gehrlicher Solar AG could have a new investor, RenewableEnergyFocus.com reported. This is according to preliminary administrator Oliver Schartl of the Munich law firm Müller-Heydenreich Beutler & Kollegen. “I see very good prospects of being soon able to sell Gehrlicher Solar America Corporation to an investor,” said Schartl. Discuussions of the search for an investor supported by a German and US M&A consultancy firm are already at an advanced stage, he reports.

Siemens AG (SIE)’s credit rating was downgraded by Fitch Ratings, which cited an accelerating decline in the company’s margins in the most recent quarter and “insufficient progress” on restructuring measures, Bloomberg reported. The long-term debt of Europe’s largest engineering company was cut to A from A+ with a stable outlook, Fitch said today in a statement. That’s the sixth-highest investment grade. Munich-based Siemens’s appointment of Joe Kaeser as Chief Executive Officer is a “positive development,” it said.

IVG Immobilien AG (IVG) is examining whether it qualifies for a court-supervised restructuring after the debt-laden German real estate company’s creditors failed to offer an alternative by yesterday’s deadline, a person with knowledge of the matter said, Bloomberg reported. IVG hired a law firm that will determine whether the Bonn-based company meets the criteria for a “Schutzschirmverfahren,” Germany’s equivalent of the U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy, said the person, who asked not to be named because the information is private.

The insolvency administrators of German DIY store chain Praktiker have stepped up the search for an investor by appointing Macquarie as advisor, they said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The administrators hope that by finding an investor they can secure as many jobs and stores as possible at the group, which has around 20,000 full and part-time employees. The group filed for insolvency earlier this month for the Praktiker-branded units, but spared its more successful Max Bahr chain.

As many as 4,000 jobs could be lost at German home improvement retailer Praktiker and its Max Bahr chain following insolvency filings, Bild reported on Saturday, citing the group's deputy board chairman, Reuters reported. "That's a shocking number," the newspaper quoted deputy supervisory board chairman Ulrich Kruse as saying. About a dozen Praktiker stores could shortly be closed, mainly shops that were about to be converted to the Max Bahr brand which traditionally had better profit margins, Wirtschaftswoche reported, without citing the source of the information.

German home improvement retailer Praktiker said on Thursday insolvency proceedings would be filed for its Max Bahr units in Germany after a trade credit insurer stopped providing insurance coverage to suppliers, Reuters reported. A company statement said the application would be made "shortly" with a court in Hamburg on grounds of over-indebtedness and lack of liquidity. It said the Praktiker group's international operations remain unaffected by the insolvency proceedings. Read more.