Finance

The crane manufacturer's IT infrastructure is currently said to be largely disrupted worldwide.

A crane from the Palfinger company.

At the listed crane arm manufacturer Palfinger there is currently a red alert. “The group is currently the target of an ongoing global cyber attack,” announced company spokesman Hannes Roither on Monday.

A large part of the global location is affected.

“The exact extent and duration of the attack, as well as its consequences, cannot yet be estimated,” the spokesman said. The solution to the problem is being “worked intensively”.

American Lidl employees receive a one-time fee of $ 200 if they are vaccinated.

Lidl company sign.

The German food discount company Lidl pays employees in the USA who are vaccinated against corona a premium of 200 US dollars (165 euros).

The money should help the employees, among other things, to finance the trip to the site of the vaccination or the care of children, said Lidl. Lidl wants to give all employees the opportunity to get vaccinated.

Hofer's mother Aldi also wants to support employees in the USA with vaccinations. In contrast to Aldi, however, there should be no lump sum, but up to four hourly wages and compensation for the cost of the vaccination.

The employees should not have to choose “between salary and health,” said Aldi-US CEO Jason Hart.

The sanctions were suspended from mid-March to mid-May. Another reason is the lack of vacancies.

Public Employment Service (AMS).

In the previous year, the labor market service cut unemployment or emergency benefits far fewer people than in the previous year. The triggers were the sharp decline in vacancies and a general waiver of such barriers between mid-March and mid-May, the AMS announced on Monday.

Although the number of people affected by unemployment has risen to just over a million, only 329,449 vacancies were reported – a quarter fewer than in 2019.

A third fewer sanctions

The AMS blocked unemployment or emergency benefits 93,199 times in 2020, a good third (36.02 percent) fewer sanctions than in 2019. Slightly less than half of the blocks (42,719 cases) concerned real cases of abuse, including 583 support for unwillingness to work completely deleted. Anyone who does not take up work or training has to do without support for six weeks, or eight weeks for repetitions. That affected almost 19,000 cases. Anyone who missed training on individual days without excuse did not receive any money for those days – this happened in around 23,200 cases.

“With the decline in company vacancies, the number of responses, which are the starting point for bans due to abuse of unemployment benefits or emergency assistance, also fell. In addition, due to the Corona situation, we did not impose any sanctions between mid-March and mid-May,” said Johannes Head, board member of the Public Employment Service (AMS), in the broadcast.

In addition to the cases of abuse, job seekers were absent from an agreed AMS appointment 22,000 times without excuse – and lost their support until the next appointment. Most of the time it was “a few days”, according to the AMS. “This decline can be explained by significantly fewer AMS appointments due to the corona situation,” writes Kopf.

Fewer terminations by employees

Another 28,400 people received no unemployment benefit for four weeks because they had given notice themselves; there was also a decrease of 12.9 percent in this category. “Here too, Corona should show its traces.

When the labor market situation is uncertain, workers simply end their employment relationship less often, “said Kopf.

The economic barometer drops to 90.1 points in January

Because of the worsening virus pandemic, the mood among companies in Germany has deteriorated at the beginning of the year. “The second corona wave temporarily ended the recovery of the German economy,” said Ifo President Clemens Fuest on Monday about his institute's survey of 9,000 managers. The Ifo business climate index fell in January from 92.2 points in the previous month to 90.1 points.

Economists had only expected a slight decrease to 91.8 points. The managers judged the outlook for their businesses and their situation to be less favorable than recently. The uncertainty in the economy has increased, “also because the vaccinations are likely to drag on,” said Ifo economic expert Klaus Wohlrabe in a Reuters interview. “Something disillusioned has moved in here.”

In economic terms, there is a risk of a false start to the year in view of the extended corona lockdown. “We expect stagnation in the first quarter,” said Wohlrabe. According to estimates by the Federal Statistical Office, Europe's largest economy is likely to have stood still by the end of 2020. “The German economy is starting the year with little confidence,” said Wohlrabe.

Industry prevented a stronger decline. “It is still very well positioned,” said Wohlrabe. “It wants to produce more, and its export expectations have also risen.” The electrical industry and machine builders in particular are currently doing well. “What has slumped massively is the retail trade,” said Wohlrabe.

The labor market balance for the corona year 2020: 30 percent more unemployed, a quarter fewer vacancies. As a result, the barriers to unemployment benefits and emergency assistance have also decreased significantly. The Public Employment Service (AMS) blocked the withdrawals of AMS money 93,199 times last year. That was 36 percent less than a year earlier.

Of all the bans, almost half of the cases were actually “cases of abuse”. This is the case, for example, when a person registered as unemployed does not accept a reasonable job or training course or does not even apply. In the case of the first violation, the remuneration is canceled for six weeks, in the case of recurrence for eight. If you are completely unwilling to work, unemployment benefits or emergency assistance will be completely removed.

Last year the AMS recorded 583 cases of “complete unwillingness to work” (minus 27 percent). In around 18,958 cases, payments were blocked for six or eight weeks due to “refusing or preventing work or training”, a decrease of 44 percent. 23,178 times, participants in AMS courses were absent from a training course without excuse for one day. In this case, the payments are only waived for the days in question.

Bans suspended by decree

It was foreseeable that the sanctions would decrease in 2020. The decrease in the number of bans due to abuse of unemployment benefits is due, among other things, to the “significantly lower demand for labor” in the previous year, says Johannes Kopf, co-director of the AMS. With the decline in vacancies, the number of responses from companies has also decreased. These are the starting point for locks. If, for example, companies notice in an interview that the applicant has only come to get the “stamp” confirming his application, they report this to the AMS, which then blocks the payments. Because anyone who receives unemployment benefits or emergency assistance must be willing to work.

Due to the lockdown in spring, no sanctions were imposed between March and mid-May. This was regulated by a decree from the Ministry of Labor.

In 2019, the AMS imposed 60,000 bans for abuse of the benefits. That was a third more than a year before.

Bribes amounting to 22 million euros are said to have flowed. The judgment is final.

Samsung company logo.

After sentencing to two and a half years in prison for corruption, heir to the Samsung corporate empire, Lee Jae Yong, does not want to contest the verdict. His client respects the court's decision, Lee's lawyer Lee In Jae said on Monday, according to reports from South Korean broadcasters and the national news agency Yonhap. The background to the proceedings was a major corruption affair involving former President Park Geun Hye.

According to the reports, the public prosecutor's office is also waiving an appeal. The judgment in the retrial against the 52-year-old vice chairman of the smartphone market leader Samsung Electronics is final. Since Lee had already been in prison for a year after the initial trial, he can be released in July of the following year, unless he has already received a sentence.

In the reopened trial, the Seoul High Court sentenced the manager to another prison term last week. The court found it proven that the de facto head of the Samsung group had offered the former president and one of her confidants money to get political support for the transfer of power within the group. Lee is the son of former CEO Lee Kun Hee, who died in October. According to investigators, almost 30 billion won (22.31 million euros) in bribes should have flowed.

Several times convicted

Lee had already been sentenced to five years in prison in 2017 for bribery, breach of trust and perjury. A year later, his sentence was downgraded to suspended sentence, and Lee was released. Separate from the closed case, Lee is under investigation on allegations of stock price manipulation and breach of audit regulations.

The German used car platform expects its stock market debut on February 4th.

Icon image.

The IPO of the used car platform Auto1 is expected to cost up to 1.8 billion euros. The operator of “wirkaufendeinauto.de” set the price range on Monday at 32 to 38 euros per share. The Berlin-based company, which was founded nine years ago, wants to raise EUR 1 billion itself and, above all, finance its planned growth. The rest – EUR 500 to 833 million – goes to the existing shareholders. The subscription period starts on Tuesday and runs until February 2nd.

On February 4th, the share is to be traded for the first time on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol “AG1”. The stock market debut of Auto1 – which is also active in Austria under “wirkaufendeinauto.at” – comes at a time when so many companies have not been on the floor for a long time. On Thursday, the shares of the Munich-based online luxury fashion retailer MyTheresa had risen so sharply on its IPO on Wall Street that the company was worth more than $ 3 billion (EUR 2.47 billion). According to one of the banks involved in the IPO, Auto1 would be valued at around seven to eight billion euros after its stock market debut. Up to 26.4 percent of the shares would then be in free float. Vodafone's radio tower subsidiary Vantage, which wants to go public in Frankfurt, is also in the starting blocks.

Auto1 itself sells – depending on the issue price – a maximum of 31.25 million shares from a capital increase, so that one billion euros will flow into the Berlin startup. Auto1 wants to put three quarters of this into further growth and use the rest to repay a convertible bond. “We look forward to broadening our investor base and want to invest significantly in the further development of the Autohero brand and our operational business over the next few years,” said CEO and co-founder Christian Bertermann. The feedback from potential investors was positive. Auto1 already has firm commitments from two anchor investors for shares worth EUR 300 million.

Above all, Autohero – the brand for the direct sale of cars to private customers – is intended to boost growth, which was significantly slowed by the corona crisis. To this end, marketing is to be expanded, customer advisors are to be hired and additional vans are to be purchased to bring the cars to the customers. In the third quarter, Auto1 was operating in the black for the first time.

The existing shareholders – of which the Japanese tech investor Softbank is the largest with 20 percent – want to sell 15.63 million shares in the course of the IPO; if there is greater demand, they will provide up to 7.03 million shares as a placement reserve. The company founders still hold around 30 percent of the company.

Last year, 38 percent of Europe's electricity came from renewable sources, while coal and gas provided 37 percent.

Green electricity symbol image.

Last year, for the first time in Europe, more electricity was generated from renewable energies than from fossil-fuel power plants. This is the result of a study by the British think tank Ember and the German think tank Agora Energiewende, as reported by the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (Monday).

According to this, renewable energies from wind, solar, hydropower or biomass supplied 38 percent of European electricity last year, while coal or gas only supplied 37 percent. This is “an important milestone in Europe's conversion to clean energy,” it says in the report.

Less coal

While wind and solar power have increased significantly, coal-fired power stations in particular have supplied less electricity. According to the information, their electricity generation has almost halved compared to 2015. Last year alone, it fell by 20 percent.

This has only partially to do with the pandemic. Because renewable energies will continue to be built and the price of CO2 will continue to rise in the foreseeable future, the decline of coal will continue after the pandemic, said Agora Director Patrick Graichen.

In 2020, FDI totaled $ 859 billion worldwide, of which $ 163 billion went to China.

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China has been the largest recipient of FDI in 2020, according to the United Nations.

In the year marked by the corona pandemic, 163 billion dollars (134 billion euros) flowed into the People's Republic, according to a report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) published on Sunday.

The US recorded $ 134 billion, after $ 251 billion in 2019. China came to $ 140 billion at the time. Globally, foreign direct investment brought in the report after 2020 by 42 percent to an estimated 859 billion dollars.

According to a study by the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI), they reached a volume of 270 billion dollars in 2020.

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According to a study, global green bond issuance reached a record level in 2020. They totaled $ 269.5 billion (€ 221.66 billion), according to a report published on Monday by the London-based non-profit association Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI).

However, the total was only slightly above the 2019 figure of $ 266.5 billion, as the Corona crisis has meanwhile significantly slowed the issue of papers.

Further increase expected

For this year, the CBI expects the volume to increase significantly to between $ 400 and 450 billion. “2021 could make a sustainable recovery possible”, the CBI expects.

Green bonds are fixed income securities that have been marketed since 2007. The capital collected from investors when it is issued must be allocated to specific energy and environmental projects that are intended to contribute to the sustainable and climate-friendly restructuring of the economy.

The largest market in the past year was the USA with a total volume of 51.1 billion dollars, followed by Germany with 40.2 billion dollars and France with 32.1 billion dollars.

The German federal finance agency wants to expand the area of green bonds this year. A bond with a 30-year term is to be offered for the first time.

Last September, the federal government launched a green bond issue for the first time, which aroused enormous interest at home and abroad. It has a term of ten years. The first five-year bond followed at the beginning of November. Among other things, the money is intended to promote sustainable transport systems and reduce CO2 emissions from vehicles.

The federal government is comparatively late with green bonds. Countries like France and Denmark, as well as companies and banks, have been issuing such papers for some time. This year the USA should also become even more active in the market – not least spurred on by the new President Joe Biden, who prompted the USA to rejoin the Paris Agreement shortly after taking office.