Finance

Revenue rose 17 percent to $ 43.1 billion in the second fiscal quarter ended December. Analysts had expected around $ 40 billion. The profit jumped year-on-year by 33 percent to 15.5 billion dollars, as the software giant Microsoft announced after the US market closed on Tuesday.

Microsoft boss Satya Nadella aligned the group to cloud services over the long-term core business with the Windows operating system and office programs – the offer of computing power and software from the network.

In the “intelligent cloud” division, sales grew 23 percent to $ 14.6 billion last quarter. A key factor here was a 50 percent increase in business on the Azure cloud platform, with which Microsoft competes with Amazon and Google.

In the Windows and hardware segment, there was a 40 percent jump in sales for the Xbox game console. Windows sales increased by ten percent. Microsoft only mentions the changes in many areas, but not the amount of sales.

The Microsoft share rose in after-hours trading at times by around five percent.

AMD benefits from servers and game consoles

The chip company AMD is benefiting greatly from the growth in the PC market and the expansion of data centers in the corona pandemic. In the past quarter, sales rose 53 percent year-on-year to a good 3.2 billion dollars, as the Intel competitor announced after the US market closed on Tuesday. Profits jumped from $ 170 million a year ago to $ 1.78 billion. Of this, however, about $ 1.3 billion went back to a tax credit.

In the business with PC processors and graphics chips, sales increased by 18 percent to 1.96 billion dollars. The long decline in sales of personal computers increased significantly during the Corona crisis thanks to the high demand for notebooks for home work.

At AMD, however, the division that supplies chips for servers and game consoles grew particularly strongly – from $ 465 million a year ago to just under $ 1.3 billion. In the pandemic, with its sharp increase in video conferencing, among other things, infrastructure providers expanded the capacity of their data centers. Chips from AMD are also in the new consoles from Sony and Microsoft, which came onto the market at the end of last year.

At the Deutsche Apotheker- und Ärztebank, Jenny Friese became a member of the board this month. The 46-year-old is responsible for major customers and markets at the cooperative institute founded in 1902 with total assets of 50 billion euros. It even took 150 years at Merck Finck before Linda Urban became the first woman to join the management board there in December. The 35-year-old looks after day-to-day business as COO and also represents CEO Michael Savenay.

“In the financial sector, there are as many women as men employed overall, but it is true that if you look up the career ladder, you will find fewer and fewer women,” says Friese, who started her career at Deutsche Bank AG and Commerzbank AG would have. Urban believes, however, that things are currently in motion: “The more examples there are of women in management positions, the more women have the courage and bring themselves into play for such positions.”

At the 100 largest German banks, the proportion of women on the executive boards is low and growing only slowly. In autumn 2020, the rate was around 11 percent, an increase of less than one percentage point compared to 2019, according to a study by DIW published this month.

According to Friese, diversity is not an end in itself. “Mixed teams are proven to be more successful and creative in finding solutions,” she says. Companies would benefit from this. ApoBank now offers various measures to promote women. At the same time, however, this also involves a certain cultural change. “As a woman, I'm sure to be on the board for this. I am very aware that I have a role model function both internally and externally, ”says Friese.

Urban advises women to actively signal that they are open to leadership positions. She herself has always traveled in a world dominated by men, even professionally. “It started early when I was studying business administration with a major in finance and then moved on to investment banking,” she says.

The financial sector is lagging behind the Dax companies

The financial sector is also lagging behind the 30 DAX companies when it comes to diversity. According to DIW, the proportion of women on the executive boards of bankers was four percentage points below the Dax average of 15 percent. Ironically, the public-law institutes, including the savings banks, are particularly far behind with a female quota of only 8%.

In view of these numbers, the federal government launched a bill for a quota for women at the beginning of the year. According to this, at least one woman must be represented on all executive boards of listed companies with over 2000 employees that have more than three members.

Even if most banks will not fall under the regulation because they are too small or not listed, Friese welcomes the setting of a quota: “Because the structures in most companies have only developed very slowly on a voluntary basis”.

Urban is more reserved. “I got where I am today even without a quota for women,” she explains. Nonetheless, I am pleased with the process that will ultimately be initiated by binding women's quotas, “that more women will take up management positions at banks”.

China's industry is increasing profits

Despite the corona pandemic, Chinese industry increased its profits in 2020. They grew by 4.1 percent to 6.45 trillion yuan (the equivalent of almost 821 billion euros), as the statistics office in Beijing announced. In 2019 there was a decrease of 3.3 percent.

A strong year-end result contributed to the positive performance: In December, profits rose by more than a fifth to a good 707 billion yuan. While the private companies recorded a profit increase in the past year, the state industrial companies suffered a loss.

The export-oriented industry in China is benefiting from growing foreign business. The export world champion manufactures many goods that are in demand during the corona crisis – from medical equipment such as breathing masks to computers for the home office. This contributed to the fact that the world's second largest economy after the USA was the only large country to grow in the Corona year 2020. The gross domestic product increased by 2.3 percent. Economists polled by Reuters expect growth of 8.4 percent in the current year. That would be the biggest plus in a decade.

The increase is around 4 percent. In 2019 there was a decrease of 3.3 percent.

Despite the corona pandemic, Chinese industry increased its profits in 2020. They grew by 4.1 percent to 6.45 trillion yuan (the equivalent of almost 821 billion euros), as the statistics office announced in Beijing on Wednesday. In 2019 there was a decrease of 3.3 percent.

A strong year-end result contributed to the positive performance: In December, profits rose by more than a fifth to a good 707 billion yuan. While the private companies recorded a profit increase in the past year, the state industrial companies suffered a loss.

Growing international business

The export-oriented industry in China is benefiting from growing foreign business. The export world champion manufactures many goods that are in demand during the corona crisis – from medical equipment such as breathing masks to computers for the home office. This contributed to the fact that the world's second largest economy after the USA was the only large country to grow in the Corona year 2020.

The gross domestic product increased by 2.3 percent. Economists polled by Reuters expect growth of 8.4 percent in the current year. That would be the biggest plus in a decade.

Profit increase of around 60 percent thanks to high demand, cheap fuel and lower costs.

A high demand for container transport and cheap fuel brought the Hamburg shipping company Hapag-Lloyd a strong profit jump in the corona year 2020. Because the company also significantly reduced its costs, earnings before interest and taxes (Ebit) rose year-on-year according to preliminary figures by around 60 percent to around 1.3 billion euros, as Hapag-Lloyd announced in Hamburg on Wednesday.

The result was thus in the middle of the target range, which was only increased again at the beginning of December. As CEO Rolf Habben Jansen reported a few weeks ago, the ships were barely enough in autumn to transport the huge amounts of goods to their customers.

Three percent increase in sales

According to the preliminary figures, the transport volume for the year as a whole fell by 1.6 percent to 11.8 million standard containers. However, increased transport prices drove sales up by three percent to 12.8 billion euros.

As a result, and because of the savings in operation and fuel, Hapag-Lloyd was also able to compensate for special charges in the fourth quarter, which, according to the information, were primarily due to an optimization of the freighter fleet.

Expert: “Difficult times are ahead”

The mood of consumers in Germany collapsed in the tough lockdown. In their consumer climate barometer published on Wednesday, the German GfK market researchers forecast a fall of 8.1 to minus 15.6 points for February. The mood was last worse in June 2020. Economists surveyed by Reuters had only expected a value of minus 7.9 points.

“The closure of restaurants and large parts of the retail trade in mid-December 2020 hit the propensity to consume just as hard as the first lockdown in the spring of last year,” said GfK expert Rolf Bürkl.

This is particularly evident in the willingness of citizens to make larger purchases such as furniture, computers or cars: According to GfK, the corresponding barometer literally collapsed in January – by 36.6 points to zero. The recently decided extension of the tough measures for the lockdown also dwindled hopes for a rapid improvement in consumer mood, said the GfK expert on the monthly survey of around 2,000 consumers.

With regard to the consumer climate, “difficult times are ahead” in the first quarter of this year, warned Bürkl. For a sustainable recovery, it is necessary that the number of infections declined more than before so that the measures can be noticeably relaxed. The recovery that many hoped for this year will still be a while in coming.

The US investment bank Goldman Sachs has withdrawn a large part of its annual salary from its CEO David Solomon because of the corruption scandal surrounding the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB. The top manager will lose $ 10 million (8.2 million euros) in his remuneration for 2020, as it emerged on Wednesday night from a mandatory notification to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

However, Solomon will not gnaw on starvation, with 17.5 million dollars his annual salary package is still quite generous. Goldman Sachs had already announced that it would reclaim millions of dollars from current and former executives who were responsible for the involvement in the scandal.

The 1MDB fund was set up in 2009 to promote Malaysia's economy, but ex-government members and dubious advisors are said to have embezzled the majority of the funds – allegedly with the help of former Goldman employees. The bank therefore accepted a fine of $ 2.9 billion in a settlement in October.

Annual balance sheet should set a historic negative record. The reason is the corona crisis and the 737 Max debacle.

Last year was one of the most difficult for US aviation giant Boeing in its 100-year history. In addition to the debacle surrounding the 737 Max crash plane, there was also the corona crisis in 2020, which at times almost brought air traffic to a standstill and thus put Boeing even deeper into trouble.

Accordingly, the figures for the fourth quarter and the entire past financial year should look dark on Wednesday (1.30 p.m. CET).

The Airbus arch-rival is threatened with a historic record loss and the weakest revenues for around 15 years. Already in the first nine months of 2020, Boeing's bottom line was around 3.5 billion dollars (2.87 billion euros) in negative territory and analysts are again expecting a billion-dollar deficit for the last quarter.

Boeing had already posted a loss of 636 million dollars in 2019, the first annual loss since the merger with US rival McDonnell Douglas in 1997, which marked the beginning of the company's recent history. 2020 is likely to be by far the worst result since Boeing's company was founded in 1916.

There was actually good news recently for the troubled US group. In November, Boeing's 737 Max jet was finally granted take-off permission from the US aviation authority, the FAA, after being banned from flying for more than a year and a half. The European flight inspection authority EASA has already given the green light for the jet, which was withdrawn from traffic in March 2019 after two crashes with a total of 346 deaths.

The re-registration in Europe is only a matter of form, which should be completed in these days. The 737 Max is Boeing's best-selling model and most important profit maker.

The fact that the aircraft type could not be delivered during the take-off bans has put a massive burden on Boeing in the past two years – Airbus overtook its US competitor as the world's largest aircraft manufacturer in 2019. Now the problem plane is allowed to take off again, but the corona pandemic has brought the aviation industry into one of its deepest crises.

That costs Boeing a lot of orders – according to the company, there were a good 650 cancellations in 2020. In total, more than 1,000 orders were deleted from the order book because many orders are considered unsafe.

After two pitch-black years, Boeing could have the worst behind them. The vaccines against the coronavirus also give hope to aviation and despite the many cancellations, Boeing does not have to seriously worry about a lack of orders in view of the aviation duopoly, which means that customers have almost no alternatives other than their rival Airbus, which has been fully booked for years.

Recently there were more new orders. Nevertheless, Boeing remains under strong pressure – further production cuts and job cuts are hardly surprising.

On average, everyone in Germany drank as little beer in 2020 as they have not since the end of the 1950s.

Police broke up the party

Statistically, everyone in Germany drank as little beer in the Corona year as they have not since the end of the 1950s. While the per capita consumption in 2019 was almost 92 liters (with non-alcoholic beer and malt drink 99.7 liters), it fell by almost four liters to around 88 liters, according to the German Brewers' Association in Berlin. The consumption of non-alcoholic beers remained almost the same in 2020 and averages around 5 liters.

The main reason for the drop in beer consumption and the record low in beer in Germany may have been the closings of restaurants and bars due to the corona pandemic.

According to a list by the Brewers' Association, the per capita consumption of beer was last below 90 liters in 1958 (at that time only West Germany in the statistics). The exact total beer sales figures for 2020 are to be published in the coming days.

“The situation is dramatic”

“The situation is dramatic and unprecedented in the post-war period,” said the chief executive of the Brewers' Association, Holger Eichele, recently to the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. While the draft beer business for the catering industry came to a complete standstill for months in 2020, the sale of bottled beer at some breweries even increased because consumers drank more within their own four walls.

The more a brewery specialized in gastronomy and thus in draft beer, the greater the losses. According to “FAZ”, this applies to Warsteiner, König Pilsener and Bitburger. Brands like Veltins and Beck's suffered less.

Two thirds to one-person companies, almost the entire remainder to small businesses.

One of the many supports for companies in the corona crisis is the hardship fund. It should replace the entrepreneur's wages; The self-employed should make ends meet privately and receive up to 2,000 euros per month. Most of this aid has so far gone to one-person businesses (EPU, 65 percent) and micro-entrepreneurs (30 percent). On average, the payments amount to 1,200 euros per person per month, so far, as reported, a total of one billion euros has been paid out.

The eleventh “Corona month” is currently running, i.e. the eleventh observation period for which companies can apply for funding. In December 2020 there was a particularly high influx of around 121,000 self-employed people who submitted applications, said the Ministry of Finance and Economics together with the Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ). In October there were 83,000 applicants and in November 110,000. “The aim of the hardship fund was and is to help the micro-enterprises that still need support to pay the daily living costs”, said Finance Minister Gernot Blümel (ÖVP).

Aid from the hardship fund – another billion euros is still in the pot – and other support measures were recently extended to the end of June.