Funny, but if you read the news sites and blogs in Germany you would think that the United States is a hell-hole. The writer Wolfgang Bittner recently described the US as a "horror-scenario", pointing to the many socio-economic disparities:
Die US-amerikanische Gesellschaft ist zerrüttet, ihre Regierung schon lange nicht mehr in der Lage, Wohlstand für die Mehrheit zu schaffen.
(American society is dysfunctional, its government is no longer capable of providing prosperity for the majority.)
And Albrecht Müller, the economist and editor of the NachDenkSeiten blog believes that the "neo-liberal Chicago ideology" has destroyed the United States to the extent that a "regime change" is needed.
Both Bittner and Müller are huge admirers of Vladimir Putin.
Be that as it may, the big German corporations have a very different view of the United States and its prospects:
Rick van Aerssen, Partner und Leiter der Praxisgruppe Gesellschaftsrecht/M&A der internationalen Anwaltskanzlei Freshfields, geht davon aus, dass in diesem Jahr deutsche Unternehmen in den Vereinigten Staaten 70 Milliarden Euro investieren. Er sieht darin eine gewisse Abwendung vom alternden Europa mit seinen politischen Risiken („wenn Frankreich kippt ...“) hin zu einem jungen und politisch stabilen Land. „Das ist eine fundamentale Hinwendung zu den Vereinigten Staaten.“
Das Land habe eine junge Bevölkerung, stabile politische Verhältnisse und zudem preiswerte Energie. „Selbst Chemieunternehmen, die wegen der hohen Fixkosten immer zuerst daran denken, eine neue Anlage an eine alte anzubauen, scheuen sich nicht mehr, in Amerika auf der grünen Wiese zu bauen“, beobachtet van Aerssen.
(Rick van Aerssen, partner and director of the M&A practice at Freshfields, believes that German companies will invest 70 billion Euros in the United States. He sees them turning away to some extent from an aging Europe with the political risks ("if France collapses....") to a young, stable country: "There is a fundamental focus on the United States"
The country has a youg population and cost-efficient energy. "Even chemical companies, who, due to the high fixed costs, would first consider expanding existing plants rather than building new ones, are not hesitating to invest in brand new facilities in America", van Aerssen obeserved.)
Just to mention a few of the mega-deals: ZF Friedrichshafen is paying more than $13 billion for TRW Automotive Holdings, a car parts maker; Siemens is buying Dresser Rand for $7.6 billion, SAP is buying the software compny Concur for $7 billion and Merck of Germany, the chemical and drug giant, said it would pay $17 billion for Sigma-Aldrich, an American life sciences company. (The German Merck is not affiliated with the United States drug maker Merck & Company.)
America's ($70 billion) gain appears to be Russia's loss:
But 41 percent of German companies in Russia have slowed investment there, according to the survey of 200 firms by the chamber of commerce, while 36 percent said they would cancel projects unless conditions improved. And 28 percent said they planned to dismiss Russian workers.
The Russian market has turned sour for German automakers. Opel said in September it would cut production at its main factory in St. Petersburg, where it makes Opel Astra and Chevrolet Cruze cars, eliminating a shift and 500 out of 1,600 jobs.
Comments