How do you guys invest?

[pantaiema]

Over the next five years, the Volkswagen Group will be investing no less than €180 billion into the development of electric cars and software, among other things. Wow. Now 68% of the €180 billion is intended for what Volkswagen calls 'digitization and electrification'.

A significant portion is also earmarked for expanding its activities in North America. In 2026, Volkswagen's new Scout brand will start its sales adventure there. (They own that old brand name.) Every year, more than 200,000 cars will be produced in the factory in South-Carolina.

In addition, Volkswagen wants to improve its competitive position in China and, of course, the brand wants to expand its model portfolio. After dieselgate, the car manufacturer has completely gone for electrification.

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For People who want to keep it for a long-term until all of this uncertainty such as War in Ukraine, Global Supply Chain Problem, Inflation back to Normal, Volkswagen (VW, VW3, VWAGY) has a very attractive Valuation. P/E Ratio :3.48. Paying Dividend currently 6.82%

 

[jstar]

With Ramadan and thus Lebaran (bonus) arriving soon, this is interesting news from the car industry. From the canteen lady to the director: all employees of a large number of car manufacturers received a substantial bonus over the past year.

It does give an indication how well the industry is doing. Despite the fact that car manufacturers on average sold fewer cars last year, profitability per car did increase in most cases. This led to a number of manufacturers transferring record amounts to all of their employees. It is remarkable that American companies paid out more bonuses.

From AUTO MOTOR UND SPORT:

Mercedes-Benz announced that it would pay a record profit-sharing bonus of up to €7300. Approximately 93,000 employees are eligible. They receive the profit sharing combined with their April salary. The profit sharing exists since 1997. Last year the bonus amounted to €6.000.

BMW will pay a maximum of €9,000 euros to its employees this month. In addition, €1,200 per employee was paid as dividend for the pension scheme. At Volkswagen, around 125,000 employees receive a performance bonus. The total for 2022 is €3.630 euros. Of this, €1.730 euros was already paid last November.

Ferrari is handing out a record bonus, thanks to record results for the year 2022. When announcing the annual results, Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna announced that about 5,000 employees of the sports car manufacturer are entitled to a one-off bonus of €13,500. The record bonus is 12.5% higher than last year's payout.

General Motors paid bonus payments of up to $12,750 to 40,000 employees - the equivalent of about $11,625. The bonus payment is based on an agreement with the unions that provides for a $1,000 profit-sharing bonus for every billion in profits. Last year's profit was almost $13 billion.

The approximately 13,000 employees of Opel parent company Stellantis in Germany receive an annual bonus of €2,000. However, that is a pittance compared to what the American Stellantis employees (including those from Dodge, Chrysler, RAM and Jeep) get this month, because they walk away with the biggest bonus of them all. At least, the approximately 40,000 employees who are organized in the American car union UAW. They receive up to $14,760 dollars (€13,900) per person.

 

[jstar]

On the banks: Credit Suisse, founded in 1856, is in trouble again. It obviously has faced quite some scandals in recent years, including money laundering charges. It lost money the previous two years - 2022 was its worst year since the financial crisis of 2008 - and has warned it does not expect to be profitable until 2024. As a precaution, the European Central Bank has asked banks in the eurozone how much outstanding money they have with the Swiss.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/16/investing/why-credit-suisse-is-struggling/index.html

 

[make_batik_great_again]

Anyone familiar with Indonesian government bonds? If I understand correctly, the gov. bonds beginning with SR, FR and ORI are the ones in IDR currency.

SR are bonds which are in accordance with Sharia principles.

ORI and FR are both not in accordance with Sharia principles. Here you have a coupon which is paid periodically. The difference between ORI and FR is the timeframe. ORI is short- or mid-term (up to 3 years) and FR are long-term bonds (up to some decades). ORI, you can usually start investing from 1 jt IDR. FR minimum usually is 100 jt IDR. And the coupon payments are every month (ORI) vs every 6 months (FR).

Is that correct? Did I forget something?

 

[Helpful Herbert]

SR bonds effectively pay interest the same as other bonds. They just call it something different. I would love to understand how that is in accordance with the Koran not allowing the payment of interest. In my opinion if we are calling the idea of interest "haram" then all bonds are haram, whether sharia or not. People buying sharia bonds are just cheating their own beliefs and their own religion, like a religious corruption.

 

[jstar]

Yeah, the whole concept of markup instead of interest is obviously tomato vs tomatoe. Everything is riba, so all these workarounds generate an exploitative gain.

 

[snpark]

I have all those bonds

 

[snpark]

Interest is haram
It's called profit rate. It's added to the initial amount and divided.
Yes it's the same thing but it's just calculated as the profit on a service as opposed to interest on lending money
So if you borrow $100k for a year they call it $110 and divide by 12

 

[jstar]

Yeah, we can avoid the word interest in the repayment

 

[snpark]

Profit rate lol

 

[make_batik_great_again]

I have all those bonds

So did I understand the difference between FR and ORI correctly? FR is longer-term investment, higher minimum amount that needs to be invested and coupon every 6 months (FR) vs every month (ORI). Or did I forget something?

 

[snpark]

Pretty much it though most designed for medium long term

 

[snpark]

 

[jstar]

On the banks: Credit Suisse, founded in 1856, is in trouble again. It obviously has faced quite some scandals in recent years, including money laundering charges. It lost money the previous two years - 2022 was its worst year since the financial crisis of 2008 - and has warned it does not expect to be profitable until 2024. As a precaution, the European Central Bank has asked banks in the eurozone how much outstanding money they have with the Swiss.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/16/investing/why-credit-suisse-is-struggling/index.html

The Swiss government wants to take emergency measures to accelerate the takeover of the troubled Credit Suisse by competitor UBS. This is reported by the Financial Times based on insider info.

Yesterday evening, the Swiss authorities and the two Swiss banks reportedly were eagerly trying to find a solution. Switzerland's largest bank, is seen by central bank and regulator Finma as the only option to take over Credit Suisse. Although they also mentioned Deutsche Bank and BlackRock (which already owns quite a big chunk of CS). If the two banks merge, an estimated 10,000 jobs may be lost.

UBS is huge of course, it is led by former ING CEO Ralph Hamers*. They would especially struggle with the acquisition of the investment bank from Credit Suisse, which has previously caused quite some scandals with drug lords and money laundering. And they caused losses. So they demand additional guarantees from the Swiss government.

*for those who might not know; the man caused quite a stir in the Netherlands at the time with a huge salary increase proposal. And then ING was investigated and had to pay a huge fine for money laundering. Immediately he left (fled? pushed out?) to join UBS. So it seems Credit Suisse will feel right at home with UBS

 

[serious_fun]

Related to the failing banks worldwide is the issue of deposit insurance.

Indonesia's LPS/IDIC system apparently insures deposits up to 2 billion rupiah PER BANK?

IDIC F.A.Q. page

 

[Ruserious]

Indonesia's LPS/IDIC system apparently insures deposits up to 2 billion rupiah PER BANK?

Per depositor per bank. Stops you having multiple accounts guaranteed. Not sure i understand what you take issue with on this one?

 

[jstar]

Related to the failing banks worldwide is the issue of deposit insurance.

Indonesia's LPS/IDIC system apparently insures deposits up to 2 billion rupiah PER BANK?

IDIC F.A.Q. page

Don’t forget they don’t compensate if the interest rate received is higher than the defined standard.

 

[make_batik_great_again]

Don’t forget they don’t compensate if the interest rate received is higher than the defined standard.

Good point. That‘s why I still hesitate opening a deposit at Sea Bank.

I wonder how this regulation is in detail. Not referring to Sea Bank from here because there the maximum duration is 3 months I think. But let‘s assume you open a deposit for 1 year at another bank. When opening this deposit their interest rate was below the defined standard. Then during this 1 year the defined standard gets changed and is then lower than your interest rate at the bank. What then? Your money is insured in case the bank gets into trouble (because when opening the deposit your interest rate was covered)? Or just bad luck, your money is in danger because the interest rate at the time when the bank is in trouble was not covered?

 

[serious_fun]

Not sure i understand what you take issue with on this one?

I don't take issue with the policy. I support the policy.

Not sure if governments around the world can actually cover potential losses in the case of a bad collapse, but it's a good policy to insure deposits.

 

[serious_fun]

Don’t forget they don’t compensate if the interest rate received is higher than the defined standard.

Hmmm...good to know. I hadn't read that point.

When a depositor has deposit interest rate higher than the rate set by IDIC, the whole deposit will not be insured.