Germany

Ailing German lender WestLB has received several bids, its official sales agent said, as the bank enters the final stretch to present a restructuring plan to the European Commission, Reuters reported. But sources close to the bank said that although four non-binding bids from strategic players and private equity investors have been tendered, none of the bidders will end up buying the whole lender. Instead, they will only try to pick up parts of it at later stages of the process.

Ailing German lender Hypo Real Estate (HRE) should be wound down, a German expert commission has recommended, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. "The experts can see only slim chances that a privatisation of HRE would become a success," said one of the people with knowledge of a report drafted on behalf of the German government by the expert commission. Due to overcapacity in the markets where nationalised mortgage lender and state financier HRE is active, the experts concluded that a sale would not yield higher proceeds than a liquidation, the source added.

Splitting up state-backed German lender WestLB would be the most sensible scenario for the ailing bank, the head of Germany's biggest regional savings banks association said Tuesday, as pressure mounts on WestLB and its shareholders to drastically reduce the bank's size and find new owners by the end of 2011, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported.

Cash-strapped Egoli Tossell Film, the German producer of Golden Globe winner "Carlos," has embarked on financial restructuring to bring in a new shareholder and secure its future, Variety reported. It is in negotiations with an unnamed Frankfurt-based investor, which will take a significant equity stake in the company. As part of this reorganization, ETF filed last week for the German equivalent of Chapter 11. It expects to emerge within three to four months with its new shareholder and a clean balance sheet.

A Munich court ruled on Thursday a squeeze-out of minority shareholders was appropriate in a nationalisation of German mortgage bank Hypo Real Estate, Reuters reported. Presiding judge Helmut Krenek said the move to nationalise the Munich-based property lender had been proportionate and, given the circumstances, was not an act of expropriation. A group of 38 shareholders, including U.S. investor J.C. Flowers, had sought to block the transfer of their shares.

Industrial parts maker NN Inc. said Thursday that it is halting operations at its German manufacturing plant, which has filed for local bankruptcy protection, Bloomberg reported. NN said the global recession and rising cost of operating in Germany forced it to close the Kugelfertigung Eltmann factory, which makes precision steel balls for industrial and aerospace customers. "Unfortunately, we cannot forecast an improvement in the operations of Eltmann to reverse this condition for the foreseeable future," said Chairman and CEO Roderick Baty said in a statement.

European finance ministers debated Monday how to beef up their giant rescue fund for troubled euro-zone countries but ended the first day of a two-day meeting without reaching a firm resolution on how to do it, amid German reluctance to open the doors to more and bigger bailouts, The Wall Street Journal reported. Germany's disinclination to speed ahead dovetails with what European diplomats describe as a momentary air of calm that has descended on the bloc's sovereign debt crisis.

Germany is backing proposals to give new powers and lending capacity to the €440bn ($577bn) eurozone rescue fund, even if that means increasing its financial guarantees, according to people familiar with the issue in Berlin and Brussels, the Financial Times reported. Such a move would be part of a package of measures, including greater co-ordination of economic policymaking between the 17 eurozone members, that could be agreed by European Union heads of government at their next summit in February.

Harles and Jentzsch, a manufacturer accused of supplying dioxin-laced fat to the animal-feed industry in Germany, filed in court for insolvency on Wednesday, Monsters and Critics reported. The company, based in Uetersen, north-west of Hamburg, is under investigation by prosecutors and may also potentially face vast civil claims from 5,000 German farms that were idled during the dioxin scare that blew up last week. A spokeswoman for the state court in Itzehoe, Julia Gaertner, said the company had filed for protection from its creditors.

The four main creditors in German cable provider Primacom have agreed to cancel 250 million euros ($328.6 million) worth of loans in return for equity, two sources familiar with the restructuring told Reuters on Thursday, sending Primacom's share price soaring. The shares leapt more than ninefold to 1.99 euros at 1545 GMT after the sources revealed that creditors Alcentra, Tennenbaum Capital, Avenue Capital and the Dutch bank ING finalised the deal that would give them full control of Primacom.