Germany

The Korean owners of one of Frankfurt’s best known skyscrapers failed to agree a restructuring plan for a loan tied to the building, paving the way for insolvency proceedings, Bloomberg News reported. A fund managed by IGIS Asset Management confirmed the event of default for the debt linked to Trianon tower in Germany’s financial capital.

German tour operator FTI said Monday that it is filing for insolvency protection from creditors, and trips that haven't yet started will be canceled or scaled back, the Associated Press reported. FTI Group, which describes itself as Europe's third-biggest tour operator, said parent company FTI Touristik GmbH, was filing an application for the opening of insolvency proceedings at a Munich court. Since an announcement in April that a consortium of investors would come on board, “booking figures have fallen well short of expectations despite the positive news,” the company said in a statement.

German inflation rose slightly more than forecast to 2.8% in May, although economists said an increase had been expected and should not alarm European Central Bank policymakers ahead of their interest rate decision next week, Reuters reported. Economists are paying close attention to the data from Germany - Europe's biggest economy - ahead of the release of inflation figures from the wider euro zone on Friday. The ECB looks set to lower interest rates next week after its biggest ever streak of hikes brought down inflation to just above its 2% target but also choked off credit.

The German Council of Economic Experts cut on Wednesday its forecasts for economic growth this year, postponing the expected recovery of the euro zone's largest economy, Reuters reported. The panel expects 0.2% gross domestic product growth this year, cutting its autumn forecast of 0.7% growth, their forecast showed on Wednesday, as reported by Reuters on Tuesday. The German economy is expected to gain some momentum over the course of the year, with inflation expected to fall and nominal wages forecast to rise. For 2025, the economic experts forecast 0.9% growth, the report showed.

German manufacturing orders fell unexpectedly in March, a reflection that an industrial rebound in Europe’s largest economy might have to wait, the Wall Street Journal reported. Orders were 0.4% lower than the prior month, German statistics office Destatis said Tuesday. It came after orders fell 0.8% in February, a significantly lower figure than the originally reported 0.2% uptick. Over a three-month period, new orders were down 4.3%. Lower orders of aircrafts, ships and trains, as well as of metal products drove down the overall performance.

German tennis legend Boris Becker was discharged from bankruptcy court in London after a judge found Wednesday he had done “all that he reasonably could do” to repay creditors tens of millions of pounds, the Associated Press reported. Becker fell far short of repaying his creditors nearly 50 million pounds ($62.5 million) he owed, but Chief Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Nicholas Briggs said it would be “perverse” not to end the case given the efforts Becker made.

Insolvent Austrian property company Signa Prime Selection, part of the troubled Signa empire, has sold the luxury Hotel Bauer on Venice’s Grand Canal as part of a deal with German industrialist family business Schoeller Group, Signa Prime said on Friday, Reuters reported. Signa, the property group founded by Rene Benko, has become the biggest casualty so far in Europe’s real estate crisis, with creditors filing claims totalling billions of euros.

German inflation accelerated for the first time since December, highlighting warnings by the European Central Bank that there’ll be bumps on the path back to the 2% target, Bloomberg News reported. Price growth came in at 2.4% in April, while economists polled by Bloomberg had expected it to remain steady at 2.3%. Energy was a key driver of the uptick. A similar dynamic was on display in Spain earlier Monday, with inflation quickening to 3.4% after the government continued to remove support that helped keep a lid on soaring energy costs.

German business sentiment improved to its highest level in a year — reinforcing recent signs that Europe’s largest economy is exiting two years of struggles, Bloomberg News reported. An expectations gauge by the Ifo institute rose to 89.9. in April from a revised 87.7 the previous month. That exceeds the 88.9 median forecast in a Bloomberg survey. A measure of current conditions also advanced. “Sentiment has improved at companies in Germany,” Ifo President Clemens Fuest said. “Companies were more satisfied with their current business. Their expectations also brightened.

Heubach GmbH, part of the Germany-headquartered Heubach Group, a global provider of colour solutions, has filed an application for the opening of regular insolvency proceedings over its assets with the competent insolvency court in Braunschweig, SustainablePlastics.com reported. At the same time, it applied for the jurisdiction of the Braunschweig insolvency court as the group court for the German subgroup of the Heubach Group.