EU Commission Approves MobilCom Rescue

The European Commission authorized a €50 million ($53.6 million) loan for the financially-stricken German telecommunications company MobilCom on Tuesday. The Commission acknowledged that the loan tranch, which was paid out last September, had been granted in accordance with EU regulations. The Commission, however, views a further loan tranch of €112 million as problematic and announced that it would launch a further probe into the transaction to determine its adherence to EU provisions.

In September the German state-owned KfW Group granted MobilCom the first tranch of the loan, for which the state acted as guarantor. The federal government is vouching for 80 percent of the the second tranch, which is being financed by a consortium of banks.