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[1/2] A trader works at the Frankfurt stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, February 22, 2022. REUTERS/Timm Reichert/File PhotoBERLIN/LONDON, Jan 27 (Reuters) - German web hosting firm IONOS is targeting a market capitalisation of up to 3.15 billion euros ($3.42 billion) in Europe's first major initial public offering (IPO) since sports car maker Porsche last September. Subject to regulatory approval of the IPO prospectus, the offer is expected to run from Jan. 30 to Feb. 7. IPO investors are typically offered a discount to a peer group in compensation for the risk of buying a new stock. Montabaur-based IONOS offers web hosting services and cloud applications to consumers and SMEs in countries including the United States, Germany, Britain, France, Spain and Poland.

In Germany, where SAP is headquartered, the company will cut slightly more than 200 jobs. SAP has also started the process to sell its stake in Qualtrics (XM.O). REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo 1 2Currently, survey-software seller Qualtrics has a market value of $7 billion and SAP has a 71% stake. SAP forecast core operating profit of 8.8-8.9 billion euros at constant currencies for this year. It also expects cloud revenue at constant currencies for 2023 to rise to 15.3-15.7 billion euros, from 12.56 billion euros last year.

☆ SAP to cut 3,000 jobs in efficiency move, explores Qualtrics stake sale
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN, Jan 26 (Reuters) - SAP (SAPG.DE) on Thursday said it plans to cut 3,000 jobs, or 2.5% of its global staff, and to explore a sale of its remaining stake in Qualtrics to focus on strategic growth areas and operate more efficiently. With the planned job cuts, SAP joins other big tech companies including Microsoft and Amazon in turning to layoffs to cut costs. SAP reported a 30% revenue increase in its cloud business in the fourth quarter, helped by strong demand for its HANA software. Analysts are worried that the lucrative cloud segment for big tech companies could be hit hard as customers look to cut spending. SAP's operating profit grew 17% in the three months through December to 1.71 billion euros ($1.87 billion) on group revenue of 8.44 billion euros, it said.

☆ NATO's Stoltenberg expects allies to lift defence spending target
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN, Jan 25 (Reuters) - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expects the alliance's member states to raise their current spending target on defence of 2% of national output when they meet for a summit in Vilnius in July, he told German newspaper Die Welt. "I assume that there will be a new target for defence spending when we meet for the NATO summit in Vilnius in July this year," Stoltenberg told Welt. "The two percent target was initially for a decade, so until 2024, so we have to update it now." Stoltenberg said he could not yet say what the member states would agree on. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February last year, many allies have increased their military spending.

☆ Germany agrees to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, allies to follow
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Andreas Rinke | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Germany's decision paves the way for other countries such as Poland, Spain, Finland, the Netherlands and Norway to supply some of their Leopard tanks to Ukraine, going some way towards delivering the hundreds of tanks that Ukraine says it needs. "Germany will always be at the forefront when it comes to supporting Ukraine," Scholz told German parliament to applause. Germany aims to quickly establish two battalions with Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine and initially provide 14 Leopard 2 tanks from its own inventory. A battalion normally comprises three or four companies with around 14 tanks each. Poland has also pledged 14 tanks and Britain has promised 14 of its own Challengers.

☆ Russian 'hacktivists' briefly knock German websites offline
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BERLIN, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Russian activist hackers knocked several German websites offline on Wednesday in response to Berlin's decision to send tanks to Ukraine, although Germany's BSI cyber agency said the digital blitz had little tangible effect. Hacking group Killnet said it was targeting government websites, banks and airports with a coordinated distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) campaign, a relatively unsophisticated attack which works by directing high volumes of internet traffic towards targeted servers in order to knock them offline. Killnet is a self-proclaimed Russian "hacktivist" group that has actively targeted opponents of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. U.S. cybersecurity firm Mandiant previously reported that Killnet is associated with another Russian hacktivist group, Xaknet, which claims it breached numerous Ukrainian organisations. Xaknet is likely connected to Russian intelligence services, Mandiant said.

☆ German business morale brightens further in January - Ifo
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File PhotoBERLIN, Jan 25 (Reuters) - German business morale brightened in January as Europe's largest economy started the new year with easing inflation and an improved outlook, a survey said on Wednesday. The Ifo institute said its business climate index rose to 90.2, in line with consensus according to a Reuters poll of analysts and up from a reading of 88.6 in December. "The German economy is starting the new year with more confidence," Ifo's president Clemens Fuest said. The increase is driven by considerably less pessimistic expectations, while companies were, however, somewhat less satisfied with their current situation, Ifo said. "The Ifo business climate has recovered significantly for the third time in a row as the easing on the gas market further diminished companies' fears of a severe recession," Commerzbank's chief economist Joerg Kraemer said.

BERLIN, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Germany's cartel office regulator said on Monday it had initiated proceedings against payment company PayPal Europe (PYPL.O) over the possibility that it hindered competition. The subject of the proceedings was PayPal's rules for extra charges and the presentation of PayPal in the terms of use for Germany, the watchdog said. "These clauses could restrict competition and constitute a violation of the prohibition of abuse," said cartel office chief Andreas Mundt in a statement. "We will now examine what market power PayPal has and to what extent online merchants are dependent on offering PayPal as a payment method." Changes to Germany's antitrust laws for digital corporations, which came into effect in 2021, give the cartel office more power in identifying and prohibiting some companies' dominant positions.

☆ Strike at Berlin airport to ground flights on Wednesday, operator says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN, Jan 23 (Reuters) - The operator of Germany's BER airport in the capital Berlin expects a strike planned for Wednesday to ground all regular passenger flights, the airport operator told Reuters on Monday. Around 300 takeoffs and landings were planned for Wednesday, when 35,000 passengers were to travel via the airport. "The airport company must assume in this situation that no regular passenger flights can take place at BER on this day," a spokesperson said. The Ver.di union has called on airport staff in ground services, aviation security and at the airport company to strike in a wage dispute. The union said it expects many workers to participate and all air traffic to and from Berlin to be affected by the all day strike.

☆ Chinook helicopters could cost Germany twice as much as planned, Business Insider reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BERLIN, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Germany's planned purchase of 60 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters manufactured by Boeing (BA.N) to replace its ageing CH-53 fleet could cost twice as much as planned, Business Insider reported on Thursday, citing several government and industry sources. Six billion euros ($6.47 billion) had been budgeted for the helicopters, but the U.S. Army has signalled to Germany that the desired equipment is cost-intensive as some components have not even been fully developed, the German news outlet said. Boeing is currently working on new rotor blades as part of the Chinook's Block II configuration but these developments had not been requested by Germany, the spokesperson said. On aerial refuelling, the person added that this had been a feature of Chinook helicopters for 35 years. Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz shifted policy in February after Russia invaded Ukraine, sharply increasing defence spending and committing 100 billion euros for the Bundeswehr, Germany's armed forces.

[1/2] FILE PHOTO-Planes of German air carrier Lufthansa are parked as Lufthansa pilots start a strike over a wage dispute, at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, September 2, 2022. REUTERS/Kai PfaffenbachROME/FRANKFURT, Jan 18 (Reuters) - German carrier Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) said on Wednesday it had offered to buy an minority stake in ITA Airways, betting on reviving the loss-making successor to Italy's Alitalia and expanding its footprint in Europe. One of the sources said it was valued at 200-300 million euros ($540 million). The new right-wing administration in Rome passed a decree in December to initially sell a minority stake through capital increases, in order to speed up a full divestment in ITA. "Acquiring ITA is one of the most challenging propositions in European aviation: the airline has been persistently loss-making," said Bernstein analyst Alex Irving.

[1/2] FILE PHOTO-Planes of German air carrier Lufthansa are parked as Lufthansa pilots start a strike over a wage dispute, at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, September 2, 2022. REUTERS/Kai PfaffenbachBERLIN/ROME, Jan 18 (Reuters) - German carrier Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) said on Wednesday it had offered to buy an initial minority stake in ITA Airways, Italy's state-owned successor to Alitalia. Lufthansa said Italy is the most important market outside of its existing home markets and the United States, noting its prominence as both a business and tourism destination. The move comes after the new right-wing administration in Rome passed a decree in December to initially sell a minority stake through capital increases, in order to speed up a full divestment in ITA. Beside its domestic German business, Lufthansa already operates the brands Swiss, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines.

☆ Germany names new defence minister, faces pressure to send tanks to Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Holger Hansen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Following several missteps, Christine Lambrecht resigned as defence minister on Monday, ahead of a conference on Friday at the U.S. military base in Ramstein on Western plans to provide Kyiv with more arms. Other countries with such tanks also need Berlin's approval before they can be passed on to another country. The new defence minister is expected to host his U.S. counterpart, Lloyd Austin, in Berlin on Thursday. "I want to make the armed forces strong for the time ahead," he said. Scholz has signalled a policy shift by promising to boost defence spending to more than 2% of its economic output.

"We have the ambition to become a profitable company in 2023," Laege said, adding the group had also secured long-term regasification capacity at the planned Hanseatic Energy Hub terminal in Stade, Germany. Laege said that Sefe, formerly called Gazprom Germania, was successful in sourcing LNG mainly from the United States, both short-term deals and for longer periods. The company, whose name is short for Securing Energy for Europe, had already unloaded a first cargo at Dunkirk, he said. However, next winter and beyond could be tight again if cold periods and a fast recovery of Asian LNG demand coincide. Reporting by Vera Eckert, Christoph Steitz, Tom Kaeckenhoff, editing by Kirsti Knolle and Jason NeelyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Boris Pistorius to take over as next German defence minister - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Social Democrat (SPD) interior minister of the state of Lower Saxony Boris Pistorius is to serve as Germany's next defence minister, two sources told Reuters on Tuesday, at a time when Berlin is under pressure to boost military support for Ukraine. Christine Lambrecht resigned as defence minister on Monday as allies increase calls to send Ukraine heavy tanks, at the start of what is likely to be a pivotal week for Western plans to further arm Kyiv. Pistorius has been interior minister in Lower Saxony since 2013 and has long been seen as a candidate to assume a national position. He ran for the leadership of the Social Democrat party in 2019. Reporting by Holger Hansen Writing by Madeline Chambers Editing by Miranda Murray, Kirsti KnolleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ German defence minister resigns amid criticism, pressure over Ukraine arms
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Lambrecht asked Scholz to dismiss her, as formally required, and he has approved, a spokesperson for the Social Democratic (SPD)-led coalition government said. During a visit to arms manufacturer Hensoldt, Scholz thanked Lambrecht for her service and said he would act fast to replace her. Among the candidates mooted by German media are Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces Eva Hoegl, junior defence minister Siemtje Moeller, SPD party chief Lars Klingbeil and Labour Minister Hubertus Heil. Economy Minister Robert Habeck praised Lambrecht for her ambition to reform the Bundeswehr and said her decision would not have been taken lightly. Associated with this were for me many special impressions, many encounters with interesting, great people," Lambrecht said in the video.

☆ German Defence minister resigns, successor to be announced promptly
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Lambrecht asked the chancellor to dismiss her, as formally required, and Scholz has accepted it, a government spokesperson said. The chancellor would propose a successor promptly, the person added, refusing to comment on names. Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces Eva Hoegl, junior defence minister Siemtje Moeller, SPD party head Lars Klingbeil and Labour Minister Hubertus Heil have been suggested as candidates by German media. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper said, citing government sources, that a successor would be announced on Tuesday. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the head of Germany's parliamentary defence committee and a member of Scholz's junior coalition partner Free Democrats (FDP), called for her successor to be installed quickly.

☆ German economy likely stagnated in Q4 - stats office
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN, Jan 13 (Reuters) - German economic output likely stagnated in the final quarter of last year and grew by 1.9% over the full-year 2022, the Federal Statistics Office said on Friday, suggesting Europe's largest economy may just escape a recession over the winter. The initial fourth quarter readout suggests Germany may just avoid a recession -- defined as two successive quarters of contraction. German inflation eased for a second month in a row in December due to falling energy prices and the government's one-off payment of household energy bills, with EU-harmonized consumer prices rising by 9.6% on the year. Germany's state deficit ratio registered 2.6% of GDP in 2022, the Statistics Office added. Reporting by Miranda Murray and Maria Martinez Writing by Paul Carrel, editing by Kirsti KnolleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ German industrial orders fall more than expected in November
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN, Jan 6 (Reuters) - German industrial orders saw their sharpest drop in more than a year in November on falling foreign demand, decreasing by 5.3% on the month on a seasonally and calendar adjusted basis, the federal statistics office said on Friday. A Reuters poll of analysts had pointed to a 0.5% fall, after a downwardly revised rise of 0.6% in October. Orders from eurozone countries slumped by 10.3% on the month, while those from outside the eurozone fell by 6.8%. "This shows how strongly the high energy prices are weighing on the eurozone," said VP Bank chief economist Thomas Gitzel. The statistics office publishes a statement with more economic data.

☆ German exporters prepare for a challenging 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The United States and China are Germany's most important trading partners. "We have a stronger euro again because of the ECB interest rate increases. He added that higher interest rates were already having an impact in the United States where they have risen further, especially on the construction industry. To tame soaring inflation, the European Central Bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve have raised interest rates at the fastest pace in decades and both are expected to do more next year. German exporters had not been able to fully process all orders in recent months due to supply shortages, Jandura said.

☆ Infineon ready to spend billions on acquisitions - CEO
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MUNICH, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Infineon (IFXGn.DE) is ready to spend several billion euros on the right takeover target as it searches for acquisitions, Chief Executive Jochen Hanebeck said in an interview published on Wednesday. The German chip maker is constantly "on the lookout" for suitable companies, Hanebeck told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). "I see it in the range of up to a few billion (euros)." In its fiscal year through September 2022, Infineon posted a rise in revenue by nearly 30% to 14.2 billion euros ($15.1 billion), while segment profit jumped 63% to 3.4 billion euros. It is quite conceivable that start-ups that are not sufficiently well financed, for example, would want to join a corporation, Hanebeck told FAZ.

☆ Nearly three in five German industry associations foresee gloomy 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Nearly three out of five German industry associations are pessimistic about next year and expect their companies to produce less as high energy prices due to the war in Ukraine show no signs of abating, found a survey published Tuesday. Of the 49 associations surveyed by the IW economic institute, 30 said they expect their members to produce less, while 13 said they expect their sectors to produce more. Nearly 40 associations said the current situation for their companies is worse than a year ago, when many assumed that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic had been mostly overcome. "Businesses do not expect the high energy prices to fall back to pre-crisis levels in the foreseeable future. He warned that the situation for energy-intensive firms was particularly precarious and their success is tied to affordable energy.

☆ Germany completes nationalization of Uniper - ministries
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Companies Uniper SE FollowBERLIN, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Germany has completed the nationalization of embattled utility Uniper (UN01.DE) and now owns 99% of shares in the company, a statement by the economy and finance ministries said on Thursday. Writing by Rachel More, editing by Kirsti KnolleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ World's largest freestanding cylindrical aquarium bursts in Berlin
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/3] Emergency services work on a street outside a hotel after a leak of the AquaDom aquarium in central Berlin near Alexanderplatz, with water poured out onto the street, in Berlin, Germany, December 16, 2022. REUTERS/Michele TantussiBERLIN, Dec 16 (Reuters) - An aquarium in Berlin that was home to around 1,500 exotic fish burst early on Friday, prompting around 100 emergency responders to rush to the scene at an inner-city leisure complex, emergency services said. "In addition to the unbelievable maritime damage... two people were injured by glass splinters," Berlin police said on Twitter. It was the world's largest freestanding cylindrical aquarium at 14 metres (46 ft) in height, according to the website of the DomAquaree complex, which houses a Radisson hotel, a museum, shops and restaurants. Writing by Rachel More and Maria Sheahan, editing by Kirsti Knolle and Emelia Sithole-MatariseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/4] Chairman Thomas Jordan of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) looks on as he attends a news conference in Bern, Switzerland December 15, 2022. Although Swiss inflation plateaued at 3% in November, it remains elevated by the country's own standards and outside the SNB's price stability goal of annual increases of 0-2%. The European Central Bank is expected to increase its deposit rate by half a percentage point later on Thursday, according to a Reuters poll, while the Bank of England is also forecast to add 50 basis points to its Bank Rate. In its latest forecast on Thursday, the SNB said it expected inflation rates of 2.9% in 2022, 2.4% in 2023 and 1.8% in 2024. Inflation was then expected to rise again, to 2.1% in the third quarter of 2025, the central bank said - above its price stability goal.

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