China in auto power play
It might not shake up the industry just yet, but China's interest in Volvo and Saab is the start of something big in global autos, writes columnist Wei Gu. Commentary
Germany's KfW extends IKB bid deadline by one week
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German state-owned development bank KfW KFW.UL is extending an initial deadline for bids for subprime casualty IKB (IKBG.DE) by at least another week because it gave details of a capital increase late on Saturday, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
KfW, IKB's main shareholder, is trying to sell the bank, which has required three multibillion-euro bailouts since getting caught out by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis in July.
Late on Saturday, IKB gave the details of the third bailout, brokered by German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck earlier in the week, under which KfW has promised financial regulators that IKB will receive at least 1.25 billion euros ($1.84 billion) of the 1.487 billion it is seeking.
"Against this backdrop, those interested in IKB should be given a bit more time to think over their offer," Germany's Handelsblatt quoted an insider as saying.
A spokesman from KfW declined to confirm or deny the report, to appear in Monday's edition, saying the bank did not wish to speak publicly about the details of the bid process.
The initial bid deadline had been due to expire on Monday, but interest in purchasing IKB has been limited so far. IKB said on Saturday it expects to lose 550 million euros this financial year against a previous estimate of a 700 million euro loss.
($1=.6809 Euro)
(Reporting by David Milliken, editing by Maureen Bavdek)
