Commerzbank Fined 650,000 Euros for Deals With Defunct Cypriot Bank
Cyprus’s securities regulator on Friday imposed a 650,000-euro ($730,800) fine on Germany’s Commerzbank for its role in transactions carried out by a local bank that collapsed during the country’s 2013 financial crisis. The country’s CySEC commission said Commerzbank had been sanctioned over investment operations conducted by the now-defunct Laiki鈥攁lso known as Cyprus Popular Bank鈥攊n 2011, following Laiki’s merger with Greece’s Marfin-Egnatia Bank. Commerzbank declined to comment on the case, which followed an eight-year probe by Cypriot authorities. The investigation, which was launched following calls by left-wing AKEL lawmaker Irene Charalambides, looked into whether the Cypriot deals may have broken laws prohibiting a company from buying its own stock. CySEC said Laiki invested in two structured products issued by Commerzbank in 2008. Marfin-Egnatia, which was at that time a Laiki subsidiary,…
FRANKFURT—German engineering company Siemens saw the volume of business contract by as much as 20 percent in the three months to June, and activity in 2021 would stay below 2019 levels, the chief financial officer told German financial newspaper Boersenzeitung.
Ralf Thomas told Saturday’s edition of the newspaper that the company’s financial third quarter, which runs April to June, “will be a big challenge for us, as for most other market participants as well” due to the coronavirus crisis.
“However, it will not be a bottomless fall,” he said, adding that the business volume of short-cycle activities had likely contracted by between 10 percent and 20 percent in the period.
Thomas had said in May he expected a 5 percent drop in revenue in the financial year ending in September, after guiding for moderate sales growth before the virus outbreak.
He did not rule out moves to cut capacity in some business areas, but left open where this could be.
He said activity in 2021 would not reach 2019’s level across all businesses or regions, but said Siemens had a competitive advantage over rivals in some areas, without offering details.
Focus News: Siemens Sees up to 20 Percent Drop in Business in April-June Quarter, CFO Tells Boersenzeitung
Lucky Brand Files for Bankruptcy as Latest Retail Casualty of Coronavirus
Apparel company Lucky Brand Dungarees is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it said on July 3, becoming the latest retailer to fall victim to the coronavirus pandemic. The firm said it had entered into a “stalking horse asset purchase agreement” with SPARC Group LLC, which owns brands such as Aeropostale and Nautica, for the sale of “substantially all” its operating assets. Such a pact sets a starting bid or minimally accepted offer as a threshold for other potential buyers if they want to bid. Lucky Brand estimated both assets and liabilities in the range of $100 million to $500 million, its filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Delaware showed. A view of a temporarily closed JCPenney store at The Shops at Tanforan Mall in San Bruno, Calif., on May…
