European newspaper publisher Mecom has sold its German newspapers, including the Berliner Zeitung and Hamburger Morgenpost, to Cologne-based M. DuMont Schauberg for €152 million (£137 million), in a move designed to ease the the company’s €650 million (£512.2 million) of net debt. FT.com reports that the UK-listed group, which is headed by former Mirror Group CEO David Montgomery and had been in danger of breaching its banking covenants, should now get through the next test of its debt arrangements at the end of February. The offloaded titles contributed about €20 million (£15.7 million) of Mecom’s estimated pre-tax 2008 earnings of €163 million (£128.4 million).

FT.com quotes Simon Davies, a media analyst at RBS, who says that while it’s good news for the company, “on its own it is not enough to resolve its balance sheet stresses.” So to make up the difference, FT.com reports, “informal talks” are underway of its businesses in Norway and Poland, which analysts give a combined price of between €400 million and €460 million (£315 million - £362.5 million).