Finance

Insolvency proceedings still not completed – lawsuits against auditors and former responsible parties are still ongoing

The creditors of the insolvent Salzburg construction company Alpine will receive a further quota payment of four percent in the coming weeks, as the credit protection association KSV1870 announced on Thursday. To date – almost eight years after the opening of the largest insolvency proceedings to date in the Second Republic – quota payments totaling ten percent have been made. The recognized claims amount to 1.6 billion euros.

The KSV assesses the winding-up of Alpine Bau GmbH and the essential recycling processes as completed. Nevertheless, the insolvency proceedings are likely to drag on, as “difficult” court cases against auditors and former leaders are still ongoing. Whether the creditors will see more money depends on the outcome of these proceedings.

Survey shows longing for vacation, but also uncertainty.

The corona pandemic has led to the most massive losses in its history in tourism and has set Austria back by almost 50 years in terms of overnight stays. The industry's hope is now based on the “Green Pass”, ie a digital vaccination certificate on the cell phone, with which, among other things, travel should be possible again. Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) wants to promote this passport based on the Israeli model at the EU summit for Europe as well.

“Hopefully that will come”, said the head of Austria Advertising (ÖW), Petra Stolba, on Thursday at an online press conference. Basically, it is important that travel is made as easy as possible. It would work without such a passport, but “more difficult”, as Stolba admitted when asked. But digital test certificates or vaccination certificates would “make our lives easier,” said Stolba.

In Israel, people with a green pass are again allowed to visit gyms, hotels, theaters or sporting events. It is also possible to travel again, Greece and Cyprus have concluded an agreement according to which vaccinated Israeli citizens can travel to the two south-eastern European countries again from mid-March without quarantine.

Worldwide there is a longing for vacation after a year of the corona crisis, including in Austria. “In fact, people are sitting on packed suitcases,” said Andreas Winkelhofer, spokesman for the regional tourism organizations. The majority of Austrians want to travel in the summer, but there are also fears about the feasibility of the trip, location and regulations on site as well as quarantine rules, according to a survey by the Institute for Tourism and Bathing Research in Northern Europe (NIT) on behalf of the ÖW and the nine regional tourism organizations . Around 1,500 people in Austria were interviewed online for the survey. “The killer is the quarantine, which brings travel streams to dry up,” said Ulf Sonntag from the NIT.

Comprehensive cancellation and withdrawal options as well as a money-back guarantee are particularly important to Austrians this year when planning their vacation, the survey shows. Winkelhofer sees the local tourism businesses prepared here. There is no uniform solution throughout Austria, but many companies offer cancellations.

Wait, book at short notice and obtain a lot of information, according to the survey, are the strategies the Austrians want to use this year. The holiday focus is on relaxation and recreation, time with family and friends, exercise in nature and swimming. Mainly vacation trips with a duration of five days and longer are planned, short vacations play a subordinate role.

As in the previous year, “home leave” is very popular this summer. Just over half of those questioned who could take a vacation would like to spend it in Germany. It is followed by Italy, Croatia and Germany. “There is a preference for travel that can be reached by car,” said Sonntag.

A return to an earlier level is still a long way off. “We do not expect that we will get on the growth path this year,” said Stolba. In 2021 one could “at best” keep the results of 2020. Last year, overnight stays in Austria only reached 98 million and thus fell below the level of 1973, when 102 million overnight stays were recorded. In 2020, Österreich Werbung spent 9 million euros from a special budget to advertise holidays. This year around 10 million euros are expected to flow, particularly in the areas of cultural and city holidays and thermal baths.

Financial supervision has taken sides for Wirecard with a ban on short selling.

With the ban on the short sale of Wirecard shares, the German financial supervisory authority BaFin has sided with the Wirecard Group in the opinion of the former Management Board of Wirecard Bank. “For me, the BaFin took sides for Wirecard AG,” said the former board member of Wirecard Bank, Rainer Wexeler, on Thursday in the Wirecard investigation committee in Berlin. With the ban, BaFin apparently wanted to protect the group from attacks by short sellers.

In February 2019, the financial regulator BaFin issued a two-month short sale ban for Wirecard shares. In the case of a short or short-selling, speculators bet on the price of a share falling. This is controversial in Germany. At that time, the procedure was justified with the threat of market uncertainty.

In his questioning before the U Committee in the German Bundestag, Wexeler doubted the influence of Wirecard on international financial stability. With total assets of 2.2 billion euros, Wirecard Bank was by no means a relevant player for the financial system. The core business of Wirecard, the processing of payment services on the Internet, was not relevant. “If that goes away, nothing will happen,” he said. After the company's insolvency, it was seen that competitors were taking over the market.

Wirecard AG granted air bookings of 1.9 billion in June 2020 and then filed for bankruptcy. According to investigations by the Munich public prosecutor's office, it could total more than three billion euros. After the uncovered accounting scandal, Wirecard flew out of the Dax. Because the scandal went undetected for years, BaFin, among others, has come under fire. Former BaFin boss Felix Hufeld had to resign in the wake of the scandal. The Frankfurt public prosecutor's office is also investigating BaFin.

British sports car maker will quadruple its loss in 2020. Aimed for this year sales plus and first steps towards profitability.

The British sports car manufacturer Aston Martin, badly shaken by the corona crisis, posted deep red numbers in 2020. Before tax, a loss of 466 million pounds (542 million euros) was made, after a loss of 119.6 million in the previous year.

However, the Aston Martin Board of Management expressed confidence that the group restructuring in 2020 laid the foundation for future growth. In the current year he is aiming for sales growth and first steps towards profitability.

The management of the legendary brand, which gained notoriety through numerous appearances in James Bond films, also relies on new models. The demand for the first luxury SUV, Aston Martin DBX, is strong and opens up a lucrative market segment, it is said.

Austro Control also sees itself as a partner for industry, said Hackl. Brunner spoke of a “milestone” for Schiebel and the aviation industry.

The company Schiebel, among other things manufacturer of unmanned aerial systems (UAS), received the so-called LUC certificate on Thursday, which was introduced as part of the new EU drone regulation. The certificate means proof for companies to be able to assess the risk of their own operations themselves. Valerie Hackl, Managing Director of Austro Control, and State Secretary Magnus Brunner (ÖVP), responsible for aviation, carried out the handover in Wiener Neustadt.

With the “Light Unmanned Operator Certificate” (LUC) flight operations in civil airspace can be approved without having to apply for an additional authorization. There is a kind of transfer of competence from the authority to the industry. Schiebel is the first company in Europe to receive the certificate.

It is now possible to authorize operations such as the monitoring of critical infrastructure, traffic routes or in agriculture and forestry “within the scope of the licensing conditions”, explained CEO Hannes Hecher at the production facility in Wiener Neustadt. The certificate is valid for the unmanned Camcopter S-100 helicopter and throughout Europe. According to Hecher, Schiebel will be operational in at least eight countries on the continent this year.

Austro Control also sees itself as a partner for industry, said Hackl. The certificate was handed over to Schiebel “without hesitation” after previous corresponding checks. It is unlimited and valid across Europe. Hackl also pointed out that 13,000 drone owners had been registered in Austria and 20,000 drone driving licenses had been issued since the beginning of the year.

Brunner spoke of a “milestone” for Schiebel and the aviation industry. The area of application for drones is getting bigger and bigger, the market potential is very high. In the area of small drones, growth of 16 percent or around 23 billion dollars (18.94 billion euros) is expected by 2026, added the State Secretary.

In Germany in third place, the most popular are relaxation and nature. 10 million corona special budget for Austria advertising.

Good news for the local tourism industry. 79 percent of Austrians and 71 percent of Germans are planning or considering a summer vacation. Holidays in your own country are particularly in demand. 54 percent of Austrians want to vacation in Germany, that's around three million people. Austria ranks third among Germans as a summer holiday destination behind Italy and Spain. 13 percent of all Germans are considering a holiday in the Alpine republic, that is a potential of six million guests.

According to the survey, the most popular are recreation and nature, mountains, hiking, cycling, but there is also interest in city and cultural vacations and the cuisine is also an issue.

That is the result of a survey by the German Institute for Tourism and Swimming Pool Research in Northern Europe (NIT) on behalf of Österreich Werbung (ÖW) and the nine regional tourism organizations.

Lustkiller quarantine

The desire for summer vacation is great, but is somewhat clouded by the uncertainties due to the pandemic. The main concern is whether the trip can go ahead as planned. When it comes to bookings, consumers have top priority when it comes to a money-back guarantee and accommodating cancellation conditions, explains Ulf Sonntag, head of INT market research. According to Sunday, the concern of being infected with Corona is not very high and much smaller than the fear of quarantine. The quarantine obligation “is a killer and is drying up travel flows”. Consumers are therefore still waiting, booking at very short notice and have a high need for information.

ÖW boss Petra Stolba and Andreas Winkelhofer, managing director of Upper Austria Tourism and spokesman for the regional tourism organizations, emphasized the importance of “providing the guests with good information”. There are no Austria-wide uniform cancellation rules, “but the companies are prepared and offer many solutions”.

From the end of March / beginning of April, the ÖW will start a large summer advertising campaign in eight EU countries. A cycling campaign is being carried out again with the federal states, and city tourism concepts are also being worked on. In 2012, the ÖW will also spend a special budget of around 10 million euros from corona aid from the federal government.

According to Sonntag, the incidents in Tyrol should not affect the booking behavior of the German neighbors. That will no longer play a role in travel planning in the summer, “people look ahead and not back”.

The survey was carried out between January 29 and February 8, 2021. 1597 people in Austria and 1992 people in Germany were surveyed.

In Austria, the share of women at the top of listed companies is 7.3 percent.

Researchers at the University of Salzburg and Innsbruck have examined how companies react to the increasing social and political pressure to fill executive board positions with women and which functions “quota women” are entrusted with in executive floors. Your comparative study with 172 listed companies from five European countries shows that women on executive boards are assigned the human resources that is connoted as female more often than the average.

In Austria, however, this aspect is not pronounced, announced the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (PLUS) on Thursday. Everywhere, however, women are still a rarity on the executive board. On the 172 board members of listed companies in Austria, Germany, France, Spain and Sweden, 240 women were among the 1,543 board members.

In Austria, the share of women at the top of listed companies is 7.3 percent. Women’s quotas are a political measure for the equal participation of women in management positions, write the scientists.

The economists Astrid Reichel, Isabella Scheibmayr (both University of Salzburg) and Julia Brandl (University of Innsbruck) have investigated the functions in which women are active on boards. Their results were recently published in the “Human Resource Management Journal” – see http://go.apa.at/QDYkpiiP. The five countries were selected because “there is very different social and legal pressure”, says Reichel, professor for human resource management at PLUS.

Her summary: “Institutional pressure brings women to the board of directors, and organizations react to it in a way that follows gender stereotypes, so that there is horizontal segregation along the functions of boards as well. For the functions concerned, especially HR, you can increased being represented on boards, however, goes hand in hand with gains in status. “

“In France there is high social pressure and a statutory gender quota. In 2016, Germany introduced a statutory minimum quota of women on the supervisory board and also obliged companies to set a quota for themselves on the executive board,” says Reichel. The new legislative proposal in Germany from the beginning of 2020 stipulates that board members must now contain at least one woman and a self-set goal of “zero women” no longer applies.

In Spain there is also a gender quota for the Executive Board, but with no sanction options. In Austria there is a legal obligation for the supervisory board, but none for the executive board. “Sweden, for example, has high normative requirements for companies, but no legal obligation to fill board positions with women. In France there is high social pressure and a statutory gender quota”, says Reichel.

In their comparative study, the researchers found “that, when faced with social and legal pressure with regard to gender equality, organizations respond by entrusting women with functions on the executive board that have female connotations and are stereotyped”. Accordingly, there is a systematic overrepresentation of women as HR directors, said Reichel. The women scientists also noticed that the area of human resource management often only comes on board with women, according to co-author Scheibmayr from the Human Resource Management Group at the University of Salzburg.

The observed effect is not due to an increased female job offer in the area of human resource management. Reichel: “The effect that women are overrepresented as human resource managers can only be seen in countries with high institutional pressure to fill board positions with women. Where there is hardly any pressure – as in Austria – the few women on the board level are not systematically more likely to be human resources are more responsible than other functions, although they also make up the majority of human resource management staff at lower levels in these countries. “

The scientists basically state that the position of the personnel director in the “secret management hierarchy” is worth less than, for example, the position of the director of finance. In the study, they cite a “cynical comment” from the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (FAZ): “If women are appointed to a board of directors, they are preferably entrusted with the personnel department, in which – of course, only behind closed doors – Assumption that this is where you could do the least harm. “

The collective agreement applies from April 1, 2021.

“With 1.4 percent more wages, we were able to conclude a good collective agreement for our colleagues in the hairdressing industry. One may

don't forget the difficulties the sector has been in for a year due to the corona crisis, “explains Christine Heitzinger,

Chairwoman of the services department in the vida union in a broadcast.

The collective agreement is valid from April 1, 2021. With the negotiated wage increase, inflation will be compensated, the union continues. Apprentice incomes are rising more sharply with an average of 2.05 percent. In concrete terms, this means 15 euros more per month per year of apprenticeship.

“The efforts of the employer representatives can be seen here and the offspring are not forgotten, which is very gratifying,” says vida unionist Heitzinger. The new apprenticeship income is 580 euros in the first year of training, 675 euros in the second, 898 euros in the third and 980 euros in the fourth year.

“Nevertheless, it is clear that employers cannot use the corona crisis on a permanent basis to reject future prospects for the industry,” said the chairwoman of the department.

Heitzinger also points out that the current regulation on the entry tests has an extremely negative effect on the additional

Earning opportunities for employees in terms of tips and the sale of additional products. These are strongly dependent on customer frequency

dependent, which in turn is related to spontaneous visits.

“We are therefore very clearly in favor of having the option of on-site testing in order to be able to have your hair cut at short notice,” says Heitzinger. The vida trade unionist emphasizes, however, that the protection of the health of workers must come first, and concludes: “I have no understanding for those who refuse to test who put everyone's health at risk with their behavior.”

First minus after eight increases in a row

The ongoing lockdown caused sales in the commercial economy in Germany to collapse after eight increases in a row in January. Industry, construction, trade and service providers together took 8.6 percent less than in the previous month, according to the Federal Statistical Office. Since the low point in April 2020, sales had risen continuously – most recently in December by 3.9 percent.

It is now 3.7 percent below the level of February 2020, the month before the restrictions due to the corona pandemic began in Germany.

The development signals a possible contraction of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the current first quarter. The economists at Deutsche Bank assume that it will decrease by 2.0 percent compared to the previous quarter. At the end of 2020 it was still enough to gain 0.3 percent, as rising exports and construction investments more than offset the decline in private consumption.

The leading indicator for the economic development of the commercial economy is determined from the monthly, but still incomplete, VAT returns. In this way, it enables early statements to be made on sales development before the official results from the surveys by economic sector are available. The data is adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects, but not for price effects.

The construction industry in Germany achieved record sales in 2020, the Federal Statistical Office announced on Thursday. Compared to the previous year, the 9,100 companies whose figures are recorded by the Federal Statistical Office increased their revenues by 6.6 percent to 98.3 billion euros. The number of employees increased by around 18,000 to 505,000. Companies with at least 20 employees are recorded. However, the order situation in the individual construction sectors developed very differently in 2020: While there was an increase of 7.6 percent in residential construction according to dpa, it was minus 4.8 percent in commercial construction.

As in the second lockdown, the influence of the corona measures on the electricity load was also lower in the third.

Electricity consumption in Austria has recently been dampened more by the cold winter weather than by the third corona lockdown. This results from comparisons made by the transmission system operator APG with the shutdown of the economy in spring and autumn. As in the second lockdown, the influence of the corona measures on the electricity load was also lower in the third.

In mid-February, electricity consumption of minus two percent or 1,361 gigawatt hours (GWh) was only slightly below the average from 2017 to 2019 (1,393 GWh). “This shows that the cold of the past few weeks is the main influencing factor on the development of the electricity load,” said the APA on Thursday.

The low temperatures in the first half of February and the associated higher energy demand, for example through heating, would have contributed significantly to the increase in electricity consumption compared to the previous months in Austria, according to the Austrian Power Grid (APG) in a broadcast. The current opening steps from the third lockdown would have little effect on power consumption.

The picture of stabilization or temperature dependency of electricity consumption at a slightly low level is similar in Europe. Despite the ongoing lockdown in the previous week (week 6), electricity consumption in Germany was exactly at the average level of the years before the pandemic.

Austria was an electricity importing country in January. According to APG, the peak value was 84 GWh on January 11, with one GWh being the lowest import of the month at the end of January. The reason for the increased need for imports is the lower generation of electricity from renewables in the winter months. The difference between consumption and renewable generation must be balanced out with storage power plants, thermal power generation and imports, according to APG. In January, APG had to resort to redispatch measures on 22 days due to a lack of network capacity.