Germany

Honsel AG, a car-industry supplier based in the central German city of Meschede, filed Monday for insolvency, court officials in the nearby town of Arnsberg said, Monsters and Critics reported. Honsel casts aluminium alloy engine blocks, engine heads, gearbox cases and body parts for big car manufacturers. According to its website, it also owns factories in France, Spain, Brazil and Mexico. No immediate comment could be obtained from the company itself. The website said it had a global workforce of 3,800 and annual sales of 540 million euros (760 million dollars).

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has aligned himself with German chancellor Angela Merkel in her push for changes to the European treaties to fortify the EU’s economic system, The Irish Times reported. In a joint declaration issued in Deauville last night, the two leaders said they had reached a new consensus on measures to strengthen Europe’s system of economic governance.

Former Arcandor AG Chief Executive Officer Thomas Middelhoff’s home and office were searched yesterday as part of a probe into the company’s bankruptcy, Bloomberg reported. Bochum prosecutors are investigating about 20 people over Arcandor’s demise, Gerrit Gabriel, a spokesman for prosecutors, said in an interview today. Investigators raided premises at nine sites throughout Germany, he said. Cologne prosecutors are leading a related probe, he said.

Adesto Technologies Inc., a developer of low-power memory chips for consumer electronics, says it has acquired intellectual property and patents from German semiconductor company Qimonda AG, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Adesto bought Qimonda intellectual property and patents related to Conductive Bridging Random Access Memory, or CBRAM, technology. The agreement includes the purchase of 30 CBRAM patent families and the licensing of additional undisclosed patents. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Talks with Karstadt's one remaining creditor that filed a complaint against the company's insolvency plan are ongoing, administrator Klaus Hubert Goerg said in a letter to Karstadt staff, holding up Karstadt's sale to billionaire investor Nicholas Berggruen, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Originally, Karstadt was to be handed over to Berggruen at the end of September, but the complaint is preventing court approval for the insolvency plan needed to finalize the sale. The talks with the U.K.

The heads of Germany’s largely state-owned Landesbanken have agreed to the need for a radical overhaul and consolidation of their institutions, after talks with finance ministry officials in Berlin, The Irish Times reported. A week after two of the largest Landesbanken, WestLB and BayernLB, agreed to merge and create Germany’s third-largest bank, representatives of the other banks appear open to further mergers before the end of 2011.

Two creditors of German retail firm Karstadt have appealed against the insolvency plan forming the basis of the planned takeover by investor Nicolas Berggruen, the mass circulation newspaper Bild am Sonntag (BamS) wrote on Sunday, Reuters reported. Although the two suppliers, according to BamS information, were owed only around 70,000 euros ($93,410), the move could in theory delay a planned handover at the end of the week starting Sept. 27, by insolvency administrator Klaus Hubert Goerg to billionaire businessman Berggruen.

Tele Columbus GmbH, a German cable company operator, will restructure €1 billion ($1.2 billion) of loans in a U.K. court, according to three people familiar with the situation, Bloomberg reported. The company, controlled by Dusseldorf, Germany-based restructuring specialist Nikolaus & Co., will attend a first court hearing on Sept. 22 to reduce its debt burden in a so- called scheme of arrangement procedure, said the people, who declined to be identified because the discussions are private. An official at the High Court of London Chancery Division confirmed the hearing date.

Billionaire Nicolas Berggruen said on Thursday that final hurdles have been cleared for him to buy German department store chain Karstadt, ending months of haggling by the retailer's main landlord with lenders. "All those who had to say 'yes' have said 'yes.'" Berggruen told Reuters Television. "Now the real work starts so that this is a success." He added that only administrative details needed to be dealt with before all involved parties could sign the contract.

Germany is at odds with the UK over plans to make banks meet part of the costs of solving any future financial crisis because of differing views about how to implement the charge, the Financial Times reported. The government of Angela Merkel, the chancellor, will on Tuesday press ahead with plans to implement an annual levy on all banks that have headquarters in Germany. Britain’s proposal is that the levy should apply to both domestic and overseas banks that do business in the UK.