Mister_ultra (@Mister_ultra) on getquin

1Yr·

"When we talk to China, we get an airport; when we talk to Germany, we get a lecture." - Another round of Germany bashing

A few days ago, I read a very interesting article about Germany and many of our problems in Manager Magazin:

It mentions 3 keywords in detail: Morality, Prices & Technology

Morality:

The quote in the headline comes from the (Nigerian) Director-General of the WTO after she was invited by our Foreign Minister.

Many countries and regions of the world do not want to receive a moral lecture every time they place an order or invest in or with Germany. So they prefer to buy from other countries that simply want to do business

Prices:

The article mentions that BASF $BAS (-0.12%) and Lanxess $LXS (-0.26%) will give up their ammonia production in Germany because it is simply no longer economically viable given the energy prices here. Both companies will now operate most of their production in China.

Not only are we creating a further dependency on China, we are also doing massive damage to the environment. Ammonia is produced in China in a much less environmentally friendly way, which will increase CO2 emissions by a factor of 10.

Winner: China

Loser: Germany and the environment

Technology and "digital sovereignty":

While we don't seem to care about sovereignty in many cases (see the example of ammonia from above), we absolutely want to achieve it in the digital realm and are daring to go it alone here without the Americans (who are miles ahead).

Among others, our misappointed minister of the interior Nancy Faeser only wants to use home-grown software for the police - so they are tinkering with something themselves instead of relying on good, functioning software.

According to the article, the Bundeswehr also does not want to use software from abroad, unlike most other partners.

-> In the end, we will probably burn a lot of money again and have to continue to rely on fax and the like

As we are on a stock market platform here and not a political platform, I don't want to go into detail about the political view (don't vote for the Greens 😉), but how we as investors can deal with this.

And there is one way in particular: invest as little as possible in Germany and, if you do, only very selectively. My portfolio therefore only contains the following German stocks:

Allianz
$ALV (-0.66%) As we Germans are known to be very security-conscious people, it is clear that we are particularly good at one thing: Insurance. As the largest or one of the largest insurers in the world, Allianz is therefore a good German share for me. In addition, my purchase in the corona low at €120 has given me a personal dividend yield of almost 10%
Bechtle
$BC8 (+0.82%) If we want to make progress with digitalization, we need system houses like Bechtle. They digitize companies or even government agencies on both the software and hardware side - in addition, the company regularly increases its sales and dividends
Encavis
$ECV (-0.06%) The topic of energy will be with us for a long time to come, and I believe that companies with a strong or pure focus on renewable energies can benefit from this. I think Encavis is well positioned here
Sartorius
$SRT3 (+0.09%) In my view, pharmaceuticals will be one of the major growth areas alongside tech due to demographic developments, and we need laboratories for pharmaceutical research. As a laboratory supplier, Sartorius is therefore also operating in an exciting environment, which is currently affected by the end of the pandemic - during Corona there was a lot of purchasing, these stocks are now being reduced first. With Thermo Fisher $TMO (+0.81%) is another company from this sector in my portfolio, also with similar problems

Regardless of these companies, I don't think there are too many exciting German stocks left. Munich Re $MUV2 (-1.1%) could still be mentioned, and Porsche $P911 (-0.41%) could also be an exciting brand and therefore share. Deutsche Börse might also be exciting $DB1 (-0.38%) and, as very conservative stocks, possibly Telekom $DTE (-0.92%) or Deutsche Post / DHL $DHL (+0.13%)

What do you think of the points mentioned in the article?

And what are still "must have" stocks from Germany for you?

https://www.manager-magazin.de/politik/deutschland/mittelstand-warum-german-free-international-zum-werbeslogan-wird-a-2f28a720-c2ce-46a9-bdd6-dc9d8bcacd05

#aktie
#stocks
#deutschland
#personalstrategy

www.manager-magazin.deMeinung: Mittelstand: Warum "German free" international zum Werbeslogan wird

30 Comments

Enrique@Der_Dividenden_Monteur

1Yr

The article in the magazine is unfortunately poorly researched. Especially when it comes to defence technology, 99% of most sectors involve a German company. For example, you could mention Zeiss as a manufacturer of lenses, without which a Lockheed missile would not hit a target, or Bosch and Siemens for the electronics. Then there's the optics sector, where there are just 3 German companies on the global market that cover everything. And I don't even want to go into the comment by the lady from Nigeria. They have already sold out to China like several African countries, so I expect a statement like that so as not to upset the Communist Party in Beijing.

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Luffy@Luffy3D2Y

1Yr

I always find it interesting to see that developing countries want to receive aid from Germany, but don't want to talk about morality. They trade freely without morals with dictators who pump in money without talking. Out of charity, of course, and purely as humanitarian aid ;D. I would like to look on the bright side. Sometimes Germany is too good. Then let China, Russia and the like handle the humanitarian aid on their own.

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Rmann@Epi

1Yr

You can complain about a lot of things in our government, but it is still democratically elected. Those up there - that's us! If you don't want that, you can convince others, put yourself forward and get elected. Have fun with that! As for the moral finger: what does "morality" consist of? In most cases, it is little more than the demand that German money is actually spent where it was promised to be spent. Of course, many governments have no interest in such proof. The rich dictatorships don't look too closely, but when it's payday, there is the threat of lifelong servitude (e.g. Sri Lanka - China).

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Staatsmann@Staatsmann

1Yr

On the subject of morality: I agree, and I would extend it to the western EU states. You hear similar things from France, Austria and the like. Unfortunately, these states are generally very happy to take money, but then want to keep the subject of human rights quiet. Prices: China is currently expanding (cheap) renewable energies at a pace that Germany can only dream of. In both absolute and percentage terms, China has caught up at such a pace that people in the EU would howl if it were made public. Renewable energies are the cheapest energy sources in the world. Of course, this also keeps electricity prices low. In the last 15 years, China has expanded so massively that the price of electricity is currently very low. (In Germany, large companies sometimes receive flat-rate purchase agreements. In other words, if at least X MWh are consumed, you pay like a flat rate. There is no such thing in China. In addition, electricity prices for companies such as BASF are free of levies and the like). The argument that people are now going to China because of the electricity prices is a bogus argument for me in order to escape the European tax burden, German workers' rights and European market control. After all, it's easier to trade with sanctioned countries via China. 😉 Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough with the software issue.
I've only heard in passing that German or European software is probably the main focus, as many US software companies have problems with the strict data protection regulations and some also want to keep backdoors in the EU based on the Patriot Act. But that's more of a rumour mill. I almost only bet on Germany through the ETFs and then just $XTP as a small bet on their start-up investments.

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Ella Marie Waschbär@DividendenWaschbaer

1Yr

I also read the article and found it very interesting. However, in principle, this has been known for a long time and is just becoming more and more public. We are losing orders to foreign countries, we are losing our reputation abroad and we are ruining ourselves more and more. It is these moralistic, supposedly know-it-all statements in particular that are getting us into trouble. Other countries, other customs. No halfway sovereign country likes to be talked into its domestic policy or be lectured on why it is doing something wrong. This is also slowly becoming apparent in politics. But by the time something happens, many companies will have already moved away. We have many great companies in Germany that have a lot of potential. But this also requires the right political/economic conditions. In addition to $DTE and $DHL, I have $ALV in my portfolio. These three will definitely stay.$EOAN delivers great dividends but is also performing rather sideways. I'm thinking about getting rid of it because the energy market is also too uncertain for me. The same applies to $MBG. In my opinion, the automotive sector is too dangerous as an investment in Germany at the moment (who would have thought that?). However, I am still keeping an eye on how the luxury segment is developing, which will be the main focus in the future.

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Sparfuchs@Reinecke

1Yr

Of course, always use the software from the USA, as the backdoor for reconnaissance is included.

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Capt‘n@Wuestenschiff

1Yr

I am currently traveling a lot in the Arab world and can only confirm your points. There would be a lot of money to be made for German companies, but "thanks" to German politics, French, British and Spanish companies are snapping up orders and laughing their heads off...

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Thomas@DonkeyKongx

1Yr

I don't understand how people can always talk themselves up here. I would like to see a direct democracy like in Switzerland. All these clown noses can only point the finger at you and what exactly does that achieve? It cuts us off from the world and with your "ethics" & "morals" people can't eat or drink anything either. Just the level of unqualified people sitting in politics and indulging in tiktok and writing social media posts and pulling in more non-thinking people. It's a completely deluded world and whoever comes to me with the argument that if nobody starts nothing will happen! Take off your clown nose yourself, people will always find ways because they are controlled by their minds and you can imagine anything you want. The biggest beast is and remains man. 👀☝️ We have developed speed But inwardly we have stood still We let machines work for us And they also think for us Wisdom has made us arrogant And our knowledge cold and hard We speak too much and feel too little But first comes humanity And only then the machines Before wisdom and knowledge comes tolerance and kindness Without humanity and charity, our existence is not worth living .

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Scharre@Scharre

1Yr

In short: this government is only going downhill!

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NEWT@SteelAnacott

1Yr

I maintain that I put a lot of thought into the composition of my portfolio (buy and hold, focus on companies with earnings and dividend growth). I currently have exactly one German company in my portfolio, $DHL, and it is not part of the hard core of my portfolio. At one point I was invested in $SRT, but I got out because I didn't want to be invested in too many stocks in the medical sector and I thought there were better options. Unfortunately, I don't see very many German stocks that make it into a globally diversified portfolio of 25 shares based on the selection criteria of market position and future prospects.

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