Germany’s financial regulator plans to ask the country’s insurers if they grasp the risk of investments they have made in direct loans and private credit funds after a search for yield in the previous decade, Bloomberg News reported. Insurers’ management of risks from private debt and other alternative assets will be a special focus of BaFin’s assessment this year of their investment behavior, Mark Branson, who leads the watchdog, told reporters in Frankfurt on Jan. 28.

German carmakers and their suppliers have announced tens of thousands of job cuts. Germany’s manufacturing industry, the world’s third largest, has shrunk steadily for seven years. And Germany’s economy as a whole has contracted for the past two years, marking only the second back-to-back annual contraction in records dating back to 1951, according to Germany’s federal statistics agency, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gross domestic product has roughly flatlined since 2019, before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic—the longest period of stagnation since the end of World War II.

Versorgungswerk der Zahnärztekammer Berlin (VZB), the pension fund for dentists in Berlin, Bremen and the state of Brandenburg, is facing losses following an investment made in the now insolvent insurtech start-up Element Insurance, Investment & Pensions Europe reported. The pension scheme is one of the main investors in the Berlin-based start-up, with a 27.14% stake in the company, according to Element Insurance’s 2023 solvency report, the latest available.

German shipbuilding group FSG-Nobiskrug has received offers from potential investors from industry-related companies after it applied for insolvency in December 2024, BairdMaritime.com reported. Hendrik Gittermann, one of two assigned provisional insolvency administrators, confirmed that discussions with interested parties have reached an advanced stage. However, Gittermann ruled out the complete and immediate resumption of production at the group's Rendsburg and Flensburg sites by the beginning of February even as the group comes under new management.

Element, once hailed as a promising player in the German insurtech sector, has declared insolvency following restrictions imposed by the Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin), the Pinnacle Gazette reported. The decision to halt the sale of new policies proved financially debilitating, leading the company to file for bankruptcy. This situation casts doubt on the future of innovative insurance offerings within the industry.

FSG Nobiskrug shipyards has received several offers from potential investors. These are industry-related companies from Germany, not financial investors, MarineLink.com reported. This was reported by the provisional insolvency administrators Dr Christoph Morgen and Hendrik Gittermann at an event in Rendsburg on 17 January. The occasion was the visit of Schleswig-Holstein's Prime Minister Daniel Guenther and State Minister of Economic Affairs Claus Ruhe Madsen to a staff meeting at the invitation of the workers’ union “IG Metall Rendsburg”.

Germany’s economy contracted for a second year in a row in 2024, underlining the scale of the challenge that will face a new government after elections due in February, including the possibility of fresh tariffs on exports to the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported. Economic output in Europe’s largest economy sank 0.2% last year after it declined 0.3% in 2023, the first two-year contraction since 2003, the federal statistics agency said Wednesday. That performance contrasts with the U.S., where growth has been surprisingly rapid over the same period.

German auto parts supplier Webasto SE is kicking off negotiations for a far-reaching overhaul under the aegis of a chief restructuring officer in response to the “ongoing crisis” in the automotive industry, according to a statement Jan. 13, Bloomberg News reported. Webasto reached a stabilization agreement with bank lenders and holders of its Schuldschein notes on Dec. 23, paving the way for a more holistic restructuring, the statement said. Johann Stohner from consultancy firm Alvarez & Marsal will be appointed chief restructuring officer from Jan. 15 to manage the process.

One of the German lenders that saw its riskiest type of debt slump when concerns about the state of US commercial real estate market spread across the world last year, is now looking to replace the bond, Bloomberg New reported. Aareal Bank AG is offering to buy back a €300 million ($308 million) so-called Additional Tier 1 bond and exercise the option to repay it in April if any of it is left outstanding, it announced on Tuesday. This is contingent on issuing new AT1s denominated in U.S. dollars.

Berlin has sounded out potential buyers for Uniper in a deal that could see the government selling its entire holding in the $18.8 billion energy utility, Reuters reported. Germany's government, which owns 99.12% of the company after nationalising it in 2022 during Europe's energy crisis, is pursuing a partial stake sale, or re-IPO, of around 25% as a preferred option, but is also weighing exiting its holding in one go. Parties that have been approached about a full sale include New York-headquartered Brookfield.