The former biotech shooting star Biontech from Mainz is now shrinking to the size beyond which it would probably never have grown so quickly without the corona vaccine boom. To achieve this, the company manages three German locations and the associated around 1,800 jobs.
In fact, the federal government invested 300 million euros in Curevac six years ago, and in the following years another up to 250 million euros flowed from Berlin to Tübingen. After the takeover, the federal government received 0.6 percent of Biontech for its shares, which it is reportedly currently selling. According to the current rate, he should receive around 130 million euros for this. With such a balance sheet, a private investor would probably be advised to invest in fixed-interest securities in the future.
Advice that the federal government could also take to heart. The results of his other forays into entrepreneurship are mixed. At Commerzbank, for example, the federal government made Unicredit's entry and the subsequent takeover attempt possible through a sloppily prepared sales process - in other words, it achieved the opposite of its goal. The 680 million euros in Corona aid for Galeria were even worse spent, of which 552 million were lost.
The story could end here. But on the one hand, there is still a process going on: the government is currently trying to privatize the gas importer Uniper, which was rescued four years ago for 13.5 billion euros.
On the other hand, there are two counter-examples: In 2018, the federal government acquired 20 percent of the network operator 50Hertz in order to prevent Chinese participation. And in 2020 he took over 25.1 percent of the defense electronics group Hensoldt for 464 million euros; today the package is worth more than two billion euros. Of course, he was like every investor: sometimes you have to be lucky. He achieved the Hensoldt increase in value less because he invested well, but because Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022.
When I went through the day's topics with our political co-leader Leila al-Serori last night, we agreed: Until recently, we wouldn't have thought that we would be dealing with the Zippel company from Hamburg. With just over 200 employees, an annual turnover of around 80 million euros and 175,000 standard containers handled annually, it is rather a minor light in the Hamburg port business. The decision-makers at the Chinese logistics giant Cosco probably felt the same way - until they discovered the company's strategic value. This is how the medium-sized company became a geopolitical crisis.
Because Cosco wants to take over 80 percent of Zippel, the federal government wants to prevent that, according to research by my colleagues Julian Olk and Jakob Hanke. There is too great a fear that Cosco, which already holds 24.99 percent of Hamburg's Tollerort container terminal after a great outcry a few years ago, could expand China's influence little by little. “Ice cold on the road” is one of the slogans on Zippel’s truck. Probably better than “Ice cold on the road for China”.
During his visit to the White House last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping recalled in a dinner speech that Chinese and Americans fought “shoulder to shoulder” against the “Japanese militaristic aggressors” over 80 years ago. In Tokyo this came across as a threat.
This primarily refers to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. It raised the defense budget to around two percent of economic output a year earlier than planned and is now aiming for three percent. Japan still needs the USA as a protective power. To ensure that it is not lost under President Donald Trump, Japan has promised investments of 550 billion dollars.
Ken Jimbo from the think tank RAIS told my colleague Martin Kölling: “It’s a bit like a subscription to an alliance, similar to Netflix.” Only with one difference: With Netflix, the customer can cancel at any time. With this subscription the provider.
Nvidia is increasing its share buyback program by $150 billion - the largest buyback in US history. The chip company can now spend 235 billion on its own shares until January 2028. The previous record holder Apple reached 110 billion in 2024. Apple bought back when the iPhone lost momentum, but the money continued to flow.
Nvidia is still growing at around 90 percent a year. The buyback is not an admission that the ideas have run out. It's a bet that the money will come faster than you can spend it.
A German Prime Minister who visits other large countries regularly gets a colorful program there - but usually does not see the head of state. This is reserved for the Federal Chancellor. But sometimes also the possibly soon-to-be Federal Chancellor. At least that's what Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan must have thought yesterday and welcomed NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst at short notice and against custom - for 50 minutes.
It was about the customs union and visas; the reason for the trip is the 65th anniversary of the recruitment agreement. Almost a million people in North Rhine-Westphalia have Turkish roots. The visit was probably less about substance than about symbolism. During the trip, Wüst denied any short-term interest in the office of Federal Chancellor - but everyone has now seen that the role of Foreign Chancellor would suit him if necessary.
Reverion from Bavaria provides an example of how state money can be well invested. The start-up is raising around 150 million euros, including from the state development bank KfW. The spin-off from the Technical University of Munich builds fuel cell power plants in containers that convert gas into electricity with an efficiency of more than 74 percent. A pure gas power plant creates 40 percent, a gas and steam power plant 60 percent. And the system can go backwards: turn cheap green electricity into gas again.
Finally, we look to Berlin, where the big shifting of chairs in the CDU continues. In a figurative sense for former parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn, who, after skipping a meeting, vacated his seat on the budget committee under pressure from his parliamentary group colleagues. And quite literally for Chancellery State Minister Philipp Amthor (CDU): He has a beach chair made on Usedom, which he had specially brought to the balcony of the Chancellery, transported away again. The internet had previously been outraged.
If I were Amthor, I would have sat this out in a beach chair. Anyone who complains about a purchase of a senior employee at government headquarters that cost 1,600 euros and paid for himself is about as credible as Jens Spahn as a family politician. And what is a beach chair on the work balcony better suited for than shielding against headwinds?
