Bloomberg Norma Group SE, a German maker of hose clamps and pipe connections for everything from cars to washing machines, rejected several takeover approaches in recent months from bidders including Carlyle Group Inc., people familiar with the matter said. The company explored a potential sale with advisers toward the end of 2022, according to the people, who asked not ...

  Bloomberg Soaring inflation, higher interest rates and supply-chain snarls spurred by the war in Ukraine pushed most of the European Union’s biggest eastern economies into contraction in the fourth quarter. Poland’s economy shrank 2.4% from the previous three months — much worse than the 0.5% forecast in a Bloomberg survey — for its second non-consecutive decline last year. It ...

Bloomberg Nato countries may agree as soon as this summer to spend at least 2% of their economic output on defense, a slight shift from the alliance’s 10-year-old pledge to “move toward the 2% guideline.” North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the alliance’s defense ministers were supposed to discuss the target when they meet in Brussels for ...