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One in ten companies feel OK about paying bribes

A survey carried out by Ernst & Young and published May 20 this year revealed that, 36% of German executives resort to accounting cosmetics to spruce up their accounts or to bribes and or corruption to secure orders, particularly when the occasion demands. The auditing and consultancy concern highlighted that a mere 23% of the 100 executives interviewed found the code of ethics followed by their company convincing. Indeed, it emerged that eight percent even admitted to a certain measure of “cost underreporting” last financial year. E&Y stressed that behind these illicit acts there is no coterie of delinquent managers. In the course of the presentation in Frankfurt, Ernst and Young stressed that today, two out of three companies have specific directives prohibiting corruption and the payment of bribes; a mere four years ago only half of the group had regulations of this kind. E & Y reads this trend as a step forward in Germany’s fight against corruption, Still, more than a quarter of the executives feel that corruption is still rife in Germany.

The German people’s bias and doubts about investing in stocks and shares

According to a recent survey carried out by Deutsche Aktieninstitut (DAI) and the Stuttgart bourse, presented in Frankfurt on 7 May, 55 percent of 2000 Germans interviewed, would not buy stocks and shares as a means of investment. Those interviewed feel that investing in stocks and shares is too complicated, something for people with plenty of money, that you need to know a lot about to do properly, and a risky business, an attitude reflected in the “negative idea that people have about capital markets”. Those who tend to find investing in shares particularly alienating are young investors according to a survey conducted by DAI. Indeed 31 percent of interviewees do not believe that investing in stocks and shares could be more profitable than with other forms of investment. Looking on the bright side, however, 45 percent were interested in stocks and shares as a long-term investment – a percentage much higher than that of those possessing bonds and shares in Germany, presently 13.1 percent.

The earnings of MDax CEOs are half of those of their DAX-listed peers

In 2014, the 50 MDax-listed companies posted an average rise in EBIT of 23 percent to 564 million Euros. This, notes Towers Watson, resulted in an average increase of 7 percent in the direct earnings of the CEOs involved, now 2.4 million Euros. The major differences among the earnings of MDax CEOs emerge in those pegged to profitability. This translates into a gap between the 0.8 million Euro pay-check of the CEO of LEG Immobilien and the 4.7 million each of Thomas Enders (Airbus) and Günther Fielmann. If the supplementary payments granted last year are also factored in, Thomas Ebeling (ProSiebenSat.1) comes out on top with earnings totalling 27.7 million Euros. At an average of 5.5 million Euros, the pay-check of MDax CEOs in 2014 was roughly half of that earned by their Dax-listed peers.