Many German companies turn off the lights

Good morning, dear readers,

The discounter Aldi Nord reports via Twitter with the notificationto close many branches earlier from November onwards in the 2022/23 winter season. They want to make an “active contribution to saving energy”. The fact that the lights are going out in Germany would be an overly exaggerated assessment. But there are some remarkable developments in the German economy – “here, there and everywhere” – that “Bild” has compiled.

After that, escalators are sometimes turned off (Saturn, Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof) and water fountains are no longer bubbling (ECE). Deutsche Bahn switches off the lights in its Berlin headquarters tower and Volkswagen leaves the production halls at 17 degrees, with employees being given warmer clothing. The rumor is already making the rounds that employees in small and medium-sized companies should no longer charge their smartphones in the office. Our insight: “If you need little, you won’t be able to do without a lot”, as the Greek writer Plutarch already said.

Maybe it’s because of the objects of the business purpose: big planes, which usually already capture the imagination of boys. In any case, Lufthansa attracts a type of entrepreneur who can be classified in a category between “sophisticated” and “rabid”, between “genius” and “creaky”. Initially, Heinz Hermann Thiele (Knorr-Bremse), who died in February 2021, got involved as a stubborn major shareholder. And now Klaus-Michael Kühne, 85, is following in his footsteps in the MDax group. With 17.5 percent of the shares, the large logistics company with a passion for football (HSV) is already number one by far.

But Kühne is apparently still buying more – and is not satisfied with just one seat on the supervisory board. His confidante Karl Gernandt should also move into the important examination board according to the scheme “Here comes the sun”. Of course, those who have been in power so far do not see such a wish list as a pre-Christmas surprise – the gauntlet falls in front of the chairman of the supervisory board Karl-Ludwig Kley, 71. He cunningly suggests a “training period” for Gernandt, but is also considering whether he will even stand for election again in 2023 .

In the scandal surrounding the illegal Cum-Ex tax savings model, Deutsche Bank has so far been fine. She appeared neither on the buyer’s nor on the seller’s side. And yet public prosecutors, tax investigators and police officers reported yesterday to raid the two towers of the Frankfurt headquarters. “Razzia” is a legal event that bankers hate like the bankruptcy of the best credit customer. This time, at the instigation of the Cologne public prosecutor’s office, even the private apartments of some of the suspects were searched in the proceedings for serious tax evasion, probably including ex-co-CEO Jürgen Fitschen.

Apparently, Deutsche Bank has provided a lot of services related to Cum-Ex, in the second tier, so to speak, as a prime broker or custodian bank. In this role, the heavily accused private bank MM Warburg sees Frankfurt as an accomplice: the big bank knew that the profits would come from the tax fund – and should have paid the capital gains tax. As a reminder: Trust, as we have learned, is the beginning of everything.

For the future, the European banking regulator has asked the financial institutions to moderate dividends and share buybacks – the reserves could still be needed during the recession. The Hamburg Commercial Bank (HCOB) stands out, which used to be called HSH Nordbank when the states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein were still dabbling around there.

“Cry Baby Cry”: The new owners, a consortium around the financial firms Cerberus and JC Flowers, are planning to approve a well-fed dividend of up to EUR 1.5 billion for the 2022 financial year, as insiders tell us. That would be more than the purchase price of one billion euros that the consortium paid for the bank in 2018.

“Good day sunshine”: The streaming giant Netflix, which has recently been in a phase of weakness, gained 2.4 million new subscribers in the past quarter. Analysts had only expected a plus of one million, which is why the share price immediately rose by 14 percent. Sales and profits also exceeded expectations for a group that first saw as a classic takeover victim – for example Microsoft. The IT giant sticks to the motto “With a little help from my friends” and is now organizing advertising for the colorful film potpourri. The Netflix makers assure that growth can be accelerated again. Her series “Stranger Things” and “Dahmer – Monster” have recently had great success.

One of the biggest dangers with this wake-up call is repeating yourself over the years with gags or splintered thoughts. It gets embarrassing after three times. I believe, brought to the basics, that I have only used the following sentence once so far: If you talk about yourself, it’s advertising, if others do it, PR. Way two is more elegant. Well, there is no one else there right now, so here comes the note on my own behalf on the occasion of my farewell, that Teresa Stiens, Christian Rickens and I talked about the morning briefing, our ideas, our fads, our experiences. Click here for the podcast, for the Magical Mystery Tour…

And then there is Austria’s ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who was as stylish as he was conservative and is now a start-up investor in the USA. He is not interested in returning to politics – it has probably also become impossible. Ironically, his longtime intimate Thomas Schmid, once head of the state holding company ÖBAG, unpacked the investigation into the “Ibiza affair” – on 15 June days in the economic and corruption prosecutor’s office. Chancellor Kurz had commissioned his helper to circulate embellished surveys financed with tax money. And Austria’s Ministry of Finance placed advertisements in a newspaper that had published such manipulated surveys.

With this “leg scraper tool” (Alpine humor) the short way to the top of the ÖVP party and to the chancellery was leveled in 2017. Schmid: “It is very important for me to emphasize that I only implemented this tool because I received the order from Kurz.” The accused has denied it. But the statements led to house searches at two companies due to suspected corruption. Among them is the Signa Holding of the well-known investor René Benko, who is now applying for state aid for his Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof for the third time. There’s only one comment: “Let it be.”

I wish you a succesfull day.

It greets you cordially

Her

Hans Jürgen Jakobs

PS: Global warming and climate change challenge society and the economy. “Help!” – and so we search Companies that have already come up with something to achieve the 1.5 degree target. If you would like to take part in the presentation of the “Global Transition Award” in the Townhall in Düsseldorf next Thursday, October 27th, you can register here.