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Germans rethink transatlantic integration

www.financialnews-us.com/

In Davos, Berlin and Washington last winter, Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel, kicked off her foreign agenda with calls for tighter transatlantic market integration. But the near-collapse of two German banks from exposure to the US subprime crisis this summer calls into question how much integration Germany can afford.

The risk of contagion from credit derivatives is the latest problem for the unequal American-German business relationship. German industry is grappling with other bilateral issues – some companies are fleeing the US equity market.

BASF, the world’s largest chemical company, is pulling its shares from the New York Stock Exchange because the costs of its US listing outweigh the benefits. Bayer, a pharmaceutical group, also plans to serve notice on the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Big Board this month, a route taken by chemical company Altana and carbon supplier SGL Carbon.

More Wall Street defections are anticipated, according to Deutsches Aktieninstitut, a lobby of German blue-chip companies. DAI president Max Dietrich Kley, who was deputy chairman of BASF when it celebrated its New York listing in the millennium year, said: “Annual costs of at least €7m are matched by no corresponding utility for many issuers.”

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