Germany's Top Firms Launch Investment Push to Help Revive Growth
As part of the initiative — dubbed 'Made for Germany — together we're strong' and led by top executives including the heads of Deutsche Bank AG and Siemens AG — members have committed a 'three-digit billion amount' of new investment in Germany by 2028 out of a total of €631 billion, according to an emailed statement Monday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNBC
7 hours ago
- CNBC
Top Europe banks warn of euro strength, 'wait-and-see' market amid U.S. tariffs
Some of Europe's top banks have sounded alarm bells over the strength of the euro and outlined how U.S. tariffs have reshaped the investment landscape in the second quarter. Germany's largest lender Deutsche Bank on Thursday reported a second-quarter profit beat but noted, across the board, the effects of the relative strength of the euro against the U.S. dollar. Speaking to CNBC's Annette Weisbach, the lender's Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke said the currency appreciation is the "big thing that's kind of flowing through our numbers," which showed mixed results in Deutsche Bank's core investment banking subdivision. At BNP Paribas , continental Europe's largest bank by assets, the global markets unit saw a 26.8% year-on-year boom in the fixed income, currencies and commodities subdivision, despite a "more challenging environment than last year, impacted by tariff announcements, geopolitical uncertainties, and the dollar's depreciation vs. the euro." Zeroing in on foreign exchange rates, CFO Lars Machenil told CNBC's "Europe Early Edition" that the euro strength meant "all the income generated outside of Europe was a bit impacted by that." Critically, banks with high U.S. activity can suffer the impact of the greenback's depreciation when converting dollar earnings into local currencies — particularly in the case of the recently strengthening euro. The European currency has added 13.46% against the greenback in the year to date, according to LSEG data, spurred on by volatility surrounding U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and their impact on the outlook of the world's largest economy. The latest activity from relevant central banks is supporting both currencies, with the U.S. Federal Reserving holding interest rates in June, while the European Central Bank on Thursday kept monetary policy unchanged . The 27-nation European Union and Washington are still locked in a race to agree a trade deal by Washington's Aug. 1 deadline, before Trump materializes a threat to impose a 30% levy on the bloc's exports to the U.S. The ongoing fog over the trade future of the two former transatlantic allies is reshaping the market and investment picture for market and corporate activity. Stateside, top lenders cashed in on their trading dominance and benefitted from Trump policies rattling markets for bonds, currencies, equities and commodities. In Europe, BNP Paribas' Machenil said the uncertainty led to a "wait-and-see" approach that the bank also cited for the stable quarterly performance of its global banking unit, which houses its operations in mergers & acquisitions and equity and debt capital markets. "It's not that [clients] are all retracting and saying we're going to stop financing," Machenil stressed. "It's a bit wait and see, waiting to see where the opportunities are. So the discussions and the pipeline are very active." Italy's second largest lender UniCredit — which on Wednesday posted a 25% year-on-year hike in second-quarter net profit — pointed to "macro volatility and U.S. tariff concerns, which temporarily shifted activity towards trading in Q2." Deutsche Bank's Von Moltke said that U.S. tariffs could translate into a "relatively steep" hike in currency conversions and an ultimate "headwind" for European exporters, while noting that the impact of the levies would be "very varied" for each corporate business. The European second-quarter earnings season has now fully kicked off, with two other major European banks, Britain's Barclays and Swiss lender UBS , due to report next week.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
SAP braces for IT spending lull as tariff woes intensify
This story was originally published on CIO Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CIO Dive newsletter. Dive Brief: SAP is bracing for economic challenges sparked by shifting U.S. trade policy, executives said Tuesday during the company's Q2 2025 earnings call for the three months ending June 30. 'We have seen in the last few weeks that suddenly customers needed additional approval at the very top, so deal cycles just become longer because there [are] much more strict cost controls,' CEO Christian Klein said. 'We are not losing these deals. We just now need to be more diligent in managing the closing plans.' The Germany-based ERP vendor saw revenue grow 9% year over year to $10.6 billion (9 billion euros), largely driven by revenue surges in cloud and cloud ERP suite of 24% and 30%, respectively. However, SAP's current cloud backlog — a measure of contractually committed spend the company expects to roll into revenue over the next 12 months — declined slightly quarter over quarter, to $21.3 billion (18.1 billion euros) from $21.4 billion (18.2 billion euros) in Q1. Dive Insight: SAP completed a year-long internal restructuring around subscription-based ERP software services and generative AI deployments during the first three months of the year. Yet, immediate and long-term challenges remain for the 53-year-old enterprise technology vendor. ERP migrations are resource-intensive initiatives that can take months or years for a large organization to complete. SAP has enticed customers reluctant to shutter on-premises systems, offering technical support assurances, discount credits and embedded AI features as the clock ticks down toward the end of mainstream support services for legacy SAP ERP Central Component software suites in two years. SAP's $2.18 billion reorganization, which included the elimination of 10,000 jobs, has evolved into a period of ongoing optimization, according to CFO Dominik Asam. 'We are starting to sharpen the pencil for the planning exercise for the coming years,' Asam said, pointing to potential 1% to 2% workforce reductions later this year. AI adoption is now a lynchpin in SAP's ongoing transformation. The company's Joule AI assistant contributed to a 50% productivity boost in 'selected sales roles' and reduced the time it takes to resolve human resources inquiries by 20%, according to Klein. 'Transformation includes reskilling … reductions in areas with lower resource demand and hiring in shop profiles that define the future of our company, such as data and Business AI,' said Klein. 'It's our obligation to always look at our workforce and do our job and do … very distinct measures on reducing profiles where we don't need the people anymore.' With the end-of-support deadline looming, the company is leaning on technology partnerships to help spur migrations. SAP expanded alliances with AWS and Microsoft in the last eight months and helped EY, DXC and Kyndryl beef up their SAP migration consulting practices earlier this year. In May, the company joined forces with China-based cloud provider Alibaba Group to drive cloud ERP adoption in the region. Alibaba is key because we now have a partner to 'deliver our cloud in China for China,' Klein said. The China market is smaller than the U.S. or Germany, Klein added, but 90% of multinational companies have a footprint in the region. While SAP does not disclose China-specific earnings data, Asam said that the U.S. accounted for nearly one-third of SAP's Q2 revenues.
Bloomberg
13 hours ago
- Bloomberg
Sustainable Funds Rebound With Global Inflows of $4.9 Billion
The global market for sustainable funds recovered in the second quarter after posting record-high redemptions during the first three months of the year, according to an analysis by Morningstar Inc. Against a backdrop of 'ESG backlash and volatility sparked by geopolitical tensions and US tariffs, the picture for ESG funds improved last quarter,' led by investments in European-based offerings, said Hortense Bioy, head of sustainable investing research at Morningstar Sustainalytics.
