Germany

Deutsche Bank is deeply involved in the American real estate crisis. After initially profiting from subprime mortgages, it is now arranging to have many of these homes sold at foreclosure auctions. The damage to the bank's image in the United States is growing, Spiegel Online reported in an analysis. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Deutsche Bank now holds loans for American single-family and multi-family houses worth about $3.7 billion (€3.1 billion). The bank, however, claims that much of this debt consists of loans to wealthy private customers.

French and German banks have lent nearly $1 trillion to the most troubled European countries and are more exposed to the debt crisis than the banks of any other countries, according to a new report that is likely to add pressure on institutions to detail their holdings, The New York Times reported.

Four German states where General Motors' Opel unit has factories are ready to provide financial assistance to the US auto giant, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday after meeting state chiefs. On Wednesday Merkel's government rejected a request from GM for 1.1 billion euros (1.3 billion dollars) in loan guarantees from a federal fund, saying GM has sufficient cash of its own, Agence France-Presse reported.

A German court has delayed a decision on the insolvency plan for department store chain Karstadt until July 16, a press spokesman for the court in Essen said Thursday, Dow Jones reported. Although the contract for the sale of Karstadt to Berggruen Holdings has been signed, the sale still depends on certain conditions being met, the court said. These relate in part to the negotiation of rental agreements between Berggruen and the owners of the real estate Karstadt rents. The agreement is also subject to approval by cartel authorities.

The looming insolvency of PrimaCom AG is edging closer since there are few signs that creditors and shareholders will reach an agreement ahead of a June 22 deadline, according to two persons familiar with the matter. PrimaCom's insolvency would boost the consolidation process in the German cable network sector with Kabel Deutschland Holding AG benefiting most. A plan to sell PrimaCom failed around six months ago, with the highest bidder offering €240 million. That apparently wasn't sufficient.

Germany said it wouldn't provide General Motors Co. loan guarantees of more than €1 billion, or $1.19 billion, to help restructure its troubled Adam Opel GmbH unit, but Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared to leave the door open for some form of aid, saying "the last word has not been spoken," The Wall Street Journal reported.

The German government has moved forward a meeting to discuss aid for troubled automaker Opel, as workers demonstrated Monday in favour of loan guarantees that appeared to be slipping away. A meeting of the fund set up to help enterprises was scheduled for Wednesday, an economy ministry spokesman told AFP, instead of Friday as initially planned. Opel has asked governments of countries where its European operations are located for €1.8 billion ($2.2 billion) in loan guarantees so the company can obtain financing at reasonable rates on capital markets.

Billionaire investor Nicolas Berggruen has won a bid to acquire German retailer Karstadt, ending a months-long saga to line up new owners for the insolvent department store chain, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Terms of the deal weren't immediately provided by Karstadt's insolvency administrator or Berggruen's holding company, which announced the deal late Monday.

Germany's Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle on Sunday ruled out any "special treatment" for General Motors' unit Opel, which is seeking state aid in exchange for keeping thousands of jobs in the country, Agence France-Presse reported.

Department store chain Karstadt's insolvency administrator has met with German retailer Metro, a spokesman for the adminstrator said on Wednesday, The Guardian reported on a Reuters story. Metro has said repeatedly over the past year it could be interested in acquiring some of Karstadt's 120 stores to beef up Kaufhof, which it wants to sell to focus on the its wholesale cash & carry and its consumer electronics business. The spokesman was responding to a report from German newspaper publisher WAZ-Mediengruppe that Metro was in talks over Karstadt.