European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 16, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Saturday March 16, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 17_ Money matters today s tip the army postal group Europe is advising service members to notify that office if they get Bills in the mail for credit cards they done to possess. Service members should be on guard for suspicious Bills because of reports that a credit card theft ring at John f. Kennedy International Airport in new York has been stealing credit cards bound for Apo addresses. Persons who get Bills for cards they done to have should provide the following information to postal authorities name and current address Type of credit card and the account number Date and location of the purchases shown on the Bill and the total amount of charges in Otles Tion. Conversion rates London up fridays closing rates for the . Dollar to other currencies. Figures Are expressed in dollars to the British Pound other local currencies in dollars Gold was quoted at $366.25 an ounce Silver at $4.02. March 14 a March 15 British Pound. .1.8555 1.8335. German Mark. 1.5750 1.5925 French franc. 5.3600 5.4095 dutch Guilder. 1.7715 1.7885 belgian franc. .32.4650 a 32.7075 italian lira. .1,176.65 1,183.20 Swiss franc. .1.36550 1.38175. Greek drachma. 169.50 170.78 turkish lira. 3,463.30 3,492.20 saudi arabian Riyal .3.7503 3.7503 Spanish peseta. 97.88 98.75 portuguese escudo. .136.46 138.12 Canadian Dollar. 1.1525 1.1535 austrian Schilling. .11.0450 11.1650 norwegian Krone. 6.1420 6.1990 danish Krone.6.0375 6.0930 these Are unofficial rates As reported by wire service and banking sources and they Are listed to give some idea of daily currency fluctuations. The Only official rate concerns the Sale of German Marks to . Personnel for personal use and this will be 1.54 through monday based on fridays noontime Price fixing. New York Exchange new York up York Stock Exchange a the 15 most Active stocks in new composite trading on thursday. Stock Sale last net chg. Avon prods inc 11,667,900 40 v4 Oft 1 % Laidlaw inc b 9,912,000 12% 0 13 it corp 7,352,100 33 % up 1 Rwjr Nabisco we 3,667,500 10% up % Bce inc 3,147,500 36% up blockbuster ent 3,145,500 12% Oft % Varit corp2,679,100. 2 % 0 1% Phibb Morris adv Micro docs 2,478,100 67 off % 2,288,200 10% up Amer express. Mcdonalds corp 2,050,100 27 % be 2,046,800 35 Oft ism corp 1,944,900 128% off 1 genl electric. 1,901,900 68 % 0 1 % Pepsico inc 1.844,600 33% up Westinghouse Al 1,586,400 29% up american Exchange new York up a the 10 most Active stocks in american Stock Exchange composite trading thursday Stock sales late net chg. Wang labs inc b 2,048,400 4% up Americus get so 639,900 12% Dow chemical it 419,200 4% Oft % Jan Bell Meta 401,600 9% unch Presidio Oil a 365,400 5% be Amdahl corp. 296,100 15% Oft % Echo Bay mines 287,400 8% off % fruit of loom 277,900 13% up % Forest labs inc 242,600 35 up 1 % Conti air Hodgs 239,100 3% off % do Jones new York up Dow Jones closing Range of averages thursday. If the 2.97 30 industrials 20 transport 15 utilities 65 stocks High 3000.00 1127.29 214.22 1054.30 Tow 2925.74 1099.61 211.14 1029.96 clots 2952.23 1107.37 211.77 1037.71 Chai Oft off 4.05 off 1.45 off 2.79 East German firms turning out to be hard Sale for company by Marc Fisher the Washington Post Berlin a the largest company in the world started from scratch last year with the aim of putting itself out of business As soon As possible. The with Headquarters in an undecorated suite of offices in Eastern Berlin is the giant holding company that has been charged by the government of reunited Germany with privatizing the 8,000 enterprises controlled by the former East German state. As trustee or tre hand for All these firms the company also is an enormous property owner with 60 percent of Eastern Germany a forests and 35 percent of its Farmland under its jurisdiction. The Treu hand a Mission is simple sell it All fast. But doing that is turning out to be harder slower and less popular than anyone expected. Some East German enterprises a Power plants the big Auto factories and cigarette makers a sold quickly. Others such As the famous optical company Carl Zeiss had to be trimmed drastically before a purchaser was found. To Date the tre hand has sold Only about 500 enterprises raising about $1.8 billion for the Federal Treasury. Last month the tre hand announced its biggest setback yet. Inter lug the East German state airline once touted As one of the country a jewels will be shut Down. The tre hand could not find a buyer so inter lug a 2,900 employees will join nearly 3 million adults already out of work in Eastern Germany. Perhaps Only 100 or 200 of inter lug a displaced workers will be Able to find positions at Lufthansa the German government controlled airline. A it is incomprehensible that the Surv. Val of a business known worldwide could not be secured a said inter lug chairman Andreas Kramer. The criticism is All in a Days work for the German executives who left Banks manufacturers and retail concerns in the Western part of the country to devote a year or More to the transformation of Eastern Germany a inefficient bloated communist system. Politicians managers columnists and workers demonstrating outside Treu hand a offices All have advice. Get the highest Price some say. No others demand forget the Money save the jobs. From every Corner comes the same accusation its going too slowly. The German economics ministry responding to the clamor has proposed taking Over the tre hand because of its failure to spark More investment and because of its insistence on maximizing income even As the Eastern German employment picture becomes dangerously gloomy. The massive Cost of reshaping the East a Economy has an Impact Well beyond the territory of the former communist state. This years German budget deficit is expected to be As High As $105 billion five times larger than two years ago. The ballooning debt is a result of severe underestimates of the Cost of unification More than $11 billion in contributions to countries fighting the persian Gulf War and another $9 billion in payments to ease the withdrawal of soviet troops from Eastern Germany. Last month. Chancellor Helmut Kohl reneging on his Campaign Promise not to raise taxes announced a $31 billion tax hike including an immediate 7.5 percent one year surcharge on income and corporate taxes a 67 cents per gallon boost Germany a tax bite Chancellor Helmut Kohl Chancellor Helmut Kohl faced with the huge costs of unification and the Gulf War has been forced to work out a $31 billion tax increase. Here is a breakdown of some of the higher taxes that the germans will be paying. A an immediate 7.5 percent one year surcharge on income and corporate taxes. A a gasoline tax hike of 67 cents per gallon. A a 13 cents per pack jump in the cigarette tax. In gasoline taxes and a 13 cents per pack jump in the cigarette tax. The National sales tax now 14 percent is expected to increase to 15 percent in 1993. A we overestimated the willingness of investors in Germany and Europe perhaps also in the United states and Japan to invest in Eastern Germany a said economics minister Jurgen Molleman. A we underestimated the difficulties in building up an effective and earlier this month Germany a Independent Central Bank the Bundesbank expressed its concern about inflationary pressure and the soaring deficit by raising its interest rate half a Point. The combination of a deepening recession in Many Western countries and the Gulf wars Drain on resources and attention have made the Treu hand a Job even harder. A a they be gotten off to a very slow Start a said one of the government s leading experts on Eastern Germany. A but i think they Are on the right track. You have to realize that you re dealing with a place where the phone system was last renewed for the olympic games in 1936. The massive Public investment needed to improve the phones and roads and so on must be Well under Way before Many businesses will show serious interest in the East.�?�. Finding investors is Only a Small part of the Treu hand a task. Its hard pressed staff of 60 accountants must examine the balance sheets of thousands of enterprises that never before had to compile an honest measurement of their profitability. Then the tre hand must decide whether to shut Down inefficient operations chop them up into smaller pieces or try to make them attractive to investors by firing workers. Most East German enterprises had an average of three times As Many workers As similar companies in the West. On top of that the tre hand is trying to develop a corps of managers and directors willing to supervise the new Eastern businesses. The Best trained Best educated Eastern germans Are former communist officials and the tre hand a generally wants to steer Clear of them. That Means finding 8,000 Board chairmen at least 32,000 corporate directors and untold thousands of managers. A where Are you going to get them from a asked tre hand executive Thomas Schneider. A most East germans never had to make decisions. So companies ask West germans to come Over and work Here. Lets say we ask an ism manager in Frankfurt to come Here. He makes a amps Susan Ham s 125,000 Marks belongs to a Tennis club goes to the opera cafe and drinks Champagne with friends on sunday. Now we ask him to move cast. We even offer More Money. He wants to know where his wife can go shopping. What should he do evenings where can he play Tennis he can to even Call Home. He says investors also have Good reasons to be wary. A. A. A. A the communist legacy of a Balky infrastructure and a devastated environment frightens Many they done to see How they can run Large businesses without phones that work or roads Good enough to make deliveries. It will take years if not decades for the German government to make promised improvements. Investors Are also afraid that they will have to foot the Bill for the cleanup of 40 years of environmental neglect a poisoned ground water fouled air dead forests a though the tre hand says it is trying to negotiate deals that protect investors from the full Cost of righting decades of West German chemical giant base took Over an East German chemical Enterprise but Only after going to great lengths to put Legal barriers Between itself and any Chance that it might have to take on the environmental liabilities of the communist Era. The second major obstacle is the property question. Germans whose property a was nationalized by the communists and jews whose Homes or land were seized by the nazis May try to reclaim what they lost. Although the unification treaty Between the two Germany tried to Settle the property problem More than a million such property claims have been filed. Many investors Are waiting for the German constitutional court to Issue the final word on Legal ownership. While German unification occurred in a time of global peace and cooperation the rebuilding of Eastern Germany has begun in a less hospitable climate including recession. As a result of such con Cems tre hand officials expect the holding company May have to pay investors to take Over Many enterprises. Tre hand chairman Detlov rowed Der who previously revived West Germany a struggling Hosch steel company is a native of Eastern Germany who says the great sell off will take longer than hoped in part because the tre hand is trying to keep As Many people working As it can. A we could a create unemployment very fast and it would take a Long time to get Back to work a he said. A we have to work with love for the a
