Germany

Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP’s U.K. administrators proposed liquidating the defunct law firm’s British assets last week a day after the German operations were put in insolvency proceedings by a Frankfurt court, Bloomberg reported. The U.K. partnership, which includes the London and Paris offices, should be moved into liquidation, administrators at BDO LLP said in a July 27 regulatory filing. White & Case LLP attorney Andreas Kleinschmidt was appointed preliminary administrator July 26 in Germany, according to the country’s online insolvency registry. Dewey’s U.S.

Deutsche Bank AG co-Chief Executive Officer Anshu Jain is cutting compensation to placate shareholders as Europe’s debt crisis slashes financial-industry jobs, leaving workers fewer opportunities to defect, Bloomberg reported. “We need to further address both the absolute level of compensation and the relative balance between rewards for shareholders and those for employees,” Jain said yesterday on a conference call.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, Wednesday approved state aid for two German state-controlled Landesbanken--BayernLB and NordLB--on the condition both banks undergo substantial restructuring in the coming years, Dow Jones reported. For BayernLB, the commission approved capital measures the bank received in 2008 and 2009 on the condition it would be fundamentally restructured and it repays 5 billion euros ($6.1 billion) of state aid over the next seven years.

Even as Germany tried Tuesday to brush off a warning that the cost of supporting its euro zone partners could damage Berlin’s stellar credit rating, market pressure was making it more likely that Spain could be the next euro member to need a helping hand, the International Herald Tribune reported. Germany, along with the Netherlands and Luxembourg, found themselves needing to defend their economic fundamentals after Moody’s Investors Service late Monday issued a “negative” outlook for those countries’ top-flight, triple-A credit ratings because of the risk of more euro zone bailouts.

German lawmakers on Thursday resoundingly backed the latest European rescue, a package of loans from the euro-zone bailout fund to prop up weakened Spanish banks, handing Chancellor Angela Merkel a victory as doubts about the euro rise in Germany, The Wall Street Journal reported. The vote did little to reassure jittery financial markets about Madrid’s economic recovery or its ability to repair its beleaguered banks.

With millions of euros in debts and an inability to pay back its loans, the operator of Germany's fabled Nürburgring racetrack, home to many of the country's Formula One races, could declare bankruptcy next week. It may be the end of the legendary racecourse, which first opened in 1927, Spiegel Online reported. The Nürburgring is facing bankruptcy because its private operating company, Nürburgring GmbH, is no longer able to pay the interest on a €330 million loan it was provided by the ISB investment and structural bank, which belongs to the state.

German mail order company Neckermann said it will file for insolvency, after its private equity owner refused to stump up the cash for a restructuring, adding to woes in the German retail sector, Reuters reported. The insolvency follows that of drugstore chain Schlecker, and comes as retailers from Metro to Praktiker and Puma grapple with lower consumer spending in Europe as a result of the region's debt crisis.

Germany's parliament is expected to give broad backing on Thursday to a European aid package for ailing Spanish banks, but the government left nothing to chance this week and appealed to citizens and lawmakers in Internet video messages and local media to support the bailout, The Wall Street Journal reported.

A key measure of German investor confidence fell unexpectedly in July in another sign that the eurozone financial crisis is weighing on Europe's largest economy, Bloomberg Businessweek reported on an Associated Press story. The ZEW institute said Tuesday its index fell for the third month in a row to minus 19.6 points from minus 16.9 in June. Market analysts foresaw a small increase to minus 15.0. Germany is the largest economy in the 17-country eurozone and has an outsized impact on the currency union and its efforts to dig out of a crisis over too much government debt.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday she was confident that a majority of German lawmakers would back aid for Spain's ailing banking sector at a special sitting of the lower house Bundestag set for Thursday, Reuters reported. Euro zone finance ministers agreed last Monday on a rescue package of up to 100 billion euros for Spanish banks, which have been crippled by a burst housing bubble.