Good morning, dear readers,
other times, other summit formats: Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) flew to Paris yesterday to meet the Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelensky together with French President Emmanuel Macron in the evening. He, in turn, has just come from London and is traveling on to the EU summit in Brussels today.
We don’t know why Berlin wasn’t on his visit list. The fact that Macron and Scholz had dinner together with Selenski in the Élysée Palace is definitely a nice signal of Franco-German unity – and there would only have been cold meatballs in the Chancellery anyway.
The meeting began with a significant difference in wording. Scholz repeated his mantra: “It stays that way. Russia must not win this war.” Macron, on the other hand, had previously said: “We stand resolutely on Ukraine’s side to accompany them to victory.”
If you follow Scholz’s choice of words, a stalemate also means an acceptable end scenario for the war for him. Apparently not for Macron – or the President does not choose his words quite as carefully as the Chancellor.
Was that a successful uprising by the shareholders? Or a long-planned changing of the guard? A few days after the Handelsblatt reported on the criticism of several funds against Bayer CEO Werner Baumann, the chemical and pharmaceutical group announced yesterday: The new Bayer boss on June 1, 2023 will be American Bill Anderson, who most recently headed the pharmaceuticals division of the Swiss Roche group. Baumann will leave at the end of May – a year earlier than originally planned.
The castling seems like an overdue reaction to the miserable development of Bayer stock and the underestimated legal risks involved in the takeover of the agrochemicals group Monsanto.
But Bayer denies what seems obvious given the chronological sequence: that the faster change is related to the attacks by activist investors. Rather, the clear goal was to be able to present the successor solution at the next general meeting at the end of April. Now it’s been a few weeks earlier.
The fact that Anderson, a proven pharmaceutical manager, is taking the helm strengthens the expectation that Bayer could become a pure drug manufacturer in the medium term. Investors have already guessed how much higher the market value of such a specialized Bayer AG would be compared to the current conglomerate – our graphic shows a possible result:
If you want to know more about what makes the new head of Bayer tick and what the company and its shareholders can expect from him, you can read about it in the Handelsblatt.
Do you know the old joke about mental arithmetic at the hotspot school? Teacher: “You have two euros and take one off. How much do you have then?” Pupil: “Still two euros – and the money from the one I deducted.”
The business model in parts of the global semiconductor industry is apparently following a similar pattern. For example, at the US company Intel. According to information from the Handelsblatt, he now considers federal subsidies of almost ten billion euros to be necessary for his planned plant in Magdeburg. So far, only 6.8 billion euros had been mentioned.
Intel’s announcement in March of last year that it would build a state-of-the-art chip factory in the middle of eastern Germany caused euphoria in the region. It was said at the time that the world’s second largest chip manufacturer wanted to invest 17 billion euros in Magdeburg. Including suppliers, a total of 10,000 jobs could be created.
But now the settlement is threatening to shake. Intel considers the additional billions to be necessary because of the increased energy prices in Germany. A company spokesman did not want to officially confirm the sum. The company’s actions are causing resentment in the federal government. Intel is doing “a lot of saber rattling,” an insider said.
One could also speak less kindly of attempted extortion. Because after the politicians have already let themselves be celebrated for the success of the settlement, it is of course all the more difficult for them to admit: Sorry, nothing will work out.
These are the methods of schoolyard bullies in corporate form, who first demand a little money from their victims and then more every day. On the other hand, the only thing that helps is a clear one: up to here and no further!
That’s what I mean, and that’s what our head of politics, Thomas Sigmund, also means in his comment. He does his own mental calculations: 10 billion euros in subsidies for 10,000 jobs, that’s one million euros per new job in Magdeburg.
And then we have to talk about 85-year-old US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who has made enormous contributions to his investigative stories. However, many of his recent research results have been highly controversial. Here’s what you need to know to situate Hersh’s latest alleged revelation, which he posted on his blog yesterday: Accordingly, the US is behind the blowing up of the Nord Stream pipelines last September.
Hersh, citing an anonymous source, reports that US Navy divers planted explosive devices on gas pipelines with the help of Norway last June in an operation ordered by US President Joe Biden and planned by the CIA. The explosive devices were then remotely detonated in September. The US wanted to prevent the Kremlin from continuing to earn billions from its gas supplies and using the supply as a means of pressure on Europe.
Along with the US government, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said the report was “false”.. According to Swedish investigations, sabotage was behind the blasts at the time. Suspicion was immediately directed towards Russia. But Moscow denies any responsibility. And so far there is no evidence of Russian perpetrators.
If the subject weren’t so serious and Hersh’s suspicions so outrageous, you could enjoy the whole pipeline affair as the plot of a very well thought out spy thriller.
I wish you a day when you don’t dive in the dark.
Best regards
Your Christian Rickens
Editor-in-Chief Handelsblatt
