Global retailers, including Adidas AG and Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M), sparked outrage in Germany on Sunday after announcing they planned to stop paying rent on stores that have been forced to close over the coronavirus outbreak.
German Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz urged leading companies to refrain from taking rash action that could hurt property owners.
“It’s irritating when large companies simply announce a halt on paying rent,” Scholz told the Bild daily, urging retailers to reach out to landlords to find solutions.
Photo: AFP
“Now is the time to work together,” he said.
The move came after the German government unveiled a major rescue package to protect companies and jobs from the economic impact of the pandemic.
It includes a provision that temporarily shields tenants from being kicked out of their homes or business premises if they experience financial hardship over the coronavirus measures.
However, German Minister of Justice Christine Lambrecht said company bosses should not to take advantage of the measure.
“It is indecent and unacceptable if financially strong firms now just stop paying their rents,” she said in Berlin on Saturday.
German sportswear maker Adidas, which made a net profit of nearly 2 billion euros (US$2.2 billion) last year, has been hard hit by a slump in Chinese sales and massive store closures.
The company, one of Germany’s best-known brands, told Deutsch Presse-Agentur (DPA) that it was “temporarily suspending rental payments, just like many other companies.”
German Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure Andreas Scheuer said he was “disappointed by Adidas,” pointing out that many small landlords would be left out of pocket.
German Member of the European Parliament Katarina Barley tweeted that she had bought her last pair of Adidas trainers, in a post that received more than 9,000 likes.
However, the Bavarian giant hit back, with chief executive Kasper Rorsted telling yesterday’s edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the bulk of Adidas’s German landlords were “large real estate companies and insurance firms” who had “mostly shown understanding” for the rent freeze decision.
Adidas would continue to make payments to small private landlords, he said.
“They will receive their April rent as usual,” he said.
Swedish clothing giant H&M likewise said it would not be paying rent on its 460 or so closed stores in Germany, telling DPA that it had informed landlords and hoped to find “a mutually acceptable solution” soon.
German shoe store chain Deichmann SE intends to suspend rent and service charges from next month for the duration of the government-ordered closures.
A spokesman for the Essen-based company told DPA that it expected those with political responsibility “to compensate for the lost rental income of the affected parties.”
Other German media outlets reported that electronics retailers Media Saturn Holding GmbH and MediaMarkt as well as Adidas rival Puma AG also planned to halt their rent payments for now.
The Ceconomy group that owns Saturn and MediaMarkt on Sunday said that it intended to apply for state aid to weather the coronavirus crisis.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his