PENALTIES
Isn't it amazing how many penalties are missed in top football matches? In the Barcelona-Chelsea Champions League semi-final last night, the world's best player Lionel Messi hit the bar from the spot when given the chance to put Barcelona up 3-1, 3-2 on aggregate. Chelsea eventually clawed back a late equaliser and went through to the final.
I have just watched the very exciting second leg of the other semi-final between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, which finished 1-2, 3-3 on aggregate. In the subsequent penalty shoot-out, Bayern won 3-1 after nine shots. In other words, there were five missed or saved penalties against four scored, which is a terrible statistic for professional players paid a fortune to kick a ball.
Pressure is of course the reason. Real pressure.
Walter Blotscher
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
ECOLOGICAL COWS
One of the claims made by ecological farmers is that their dairy cows only eat grass in the summer from their ecologically maintained meadows. So, after being cooped up in stalls and barns all winter, it's a big deal when these cows are eventually let out.
At a local farm, that happened last Sunday. I am not at all surprised that the cows were excited. But what did surprise me was the number of people who turned up to watch. Last year, it was more than 4,000, this year that had grown to - I kid you not - more than 6,000. The same thing happened at every other ecological farm in the country.
Have Danes really nothing better to do at the weekend than watch cows eating grass? Apparently not.
Walter Blotscher
One of the claims made by ecological farmers is that their dairy cows only eat grass in the summer from their ecologically maintained meadows. So, after being cooped up in stalls and barns all winter, it's a big deal when these cows are eventually let out.
At a local farm, that happened last Sunday. I am not at all surprised that the cows were excited. But what did surprise me was the number of people who turned up to watch. Last year, it was more than 4,000, this year that had grown to - I kid you not - more than 6,000. The same thing happened at every other ecological farm in the country.
Have Danes really nothing better to do at the weekend than watch cows eating grass? Apparently not.
Walter Blotscher
Monday, 23 April 2012
SMOKING
If you look at films from the 1950's, then everybody - both men and women - seem to be smoking all of the time, in all possible places. Nowadays, it's hard to think of a group of people who are bigger social pariahs than smokers.
In Denmark, things have just got worse for them. A new smoking law, agreed over the weekend, implements a total ban on smoking anywhere in kindergartens, schools and other educational establishments, and social institutions for children. Plus offices in unincorporated businesses (i.e. the self-employed). Exceptions have however been given for farmers in their tractors (surprise, surprise), and drivers of lorries, cranes and company vehicles, if there is only one person in the vehicle at any one time. A controversial exception is childminders, who can smoke in their own home outside working hours. If the idea is to stop the effects of passive smoking on children, then this last exception seems a bit daft.
Governmental attempts to influence social behaviour are rarely uncontroversial, and this latest attempt is no exception. The right-wing opposition thinks it will in fact lead to more passive smoking, as smokers congregate in doorways and other public places where people pass. While one of the main cancer charities thinks it doesn't go far enough, since smoking rooms and "cabins" will be still allowed.
And in these straightened times, do Governments really want to stop people smoking? After all, they make a lot of money from taxing it.
Walter Blotscher
If you look at films from the 1950's, then everybody - both men and women - seem to be smoking all of the time, in all possible places. Nowadays, it's hard to think of a group of people who are bigger social pariahs than smokers.
In Denmark, things have just got worse for them. A new smoking law, agreed over the weekend, implements a total ban on smoking anywhere in kindergartens, schools and other educational establishments, and social institutions for children. Plus offices in unincorporated businesses (i.e. the self-employed). Exceptions have however been given for farmers in their tractors (surprise, surprise), and drivers of lorries, cranes and company vehicles, if there is only one person in the vehicle at any one time. A controversial exception is childminders, who can smoke in their own home outside working hours. If the idea is to stop the effects of passive smoking on children, then this last exception seems a bit daft.
Governmental attempts to influence social behaviour are rarely uncontroversial, and this latest attempt is no exception. The right-wing opposition thinks it will in fact lead to more passive smoking, as smokers congregate in doorways and other public places where people pass. While one of the main cancer charities thinks it doesn't go far enough, since smoking rooms and "cabins" will be still allowed.
And in these straightened times, do Governments really want to stop people smoking? After all, they make a lot of money from taxing it.
Walter Blotscher
Sunday, 22 April 2012
MÆRSK Mc-KINNEY MØLLER
An old man was laid to rest in Copenhagen yesterday. Since he was almost 99, it was perhaps not so surprising. However, the man in question was Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, reputedly Denmark's richest man, the former head of the country's biggest company A.P. Møller-Mærsk and still its controlling shareholder. So the funeral was not your average affair. The audience included most of the Danish royal family, five current and former Prime Ministers, and much of the business and political elite.
This is not going to be popular with Danish readers, but I have to admit to having had a dislike of Hr. Møller and his business methods, ever since my first job as a shipping analyst at an American bank. Four things bugged me. The first was an almost obsessive regard for secrecy. In the old days, all the group's assets were owned exactly 50% by each of two holding companies, Svendborg (the place where the company was started by Hr. Møller's father) and 1912 (the year). Since neither owned a majority of anything, the group got away with not having to produce any consolidated accounts, even though both companies were publicly quoted. Basically, no outsider knew what was going on. Market pressure eventually forced the dismembership of this construction some years ago, so there is now only one holding company, A.P. Møller-Mærsk; but the climate of secrecy remains.
Secondly, the group has used a trick which is quite common in Scandinavia, where there are A and B shares, with one lot having many times more votes than the other. This has allowed the family (well, various trusts, which are in turn controlled by the family) to tap the markets for capital without having to cede ultimate control.
Thirdly, by being big and retaining control, the company has got involved in all sorts of businesses, which would in other circumstances have cost managers their heads. Ports and terminals are a useful adjunct to the core shipping business (where Mærsk Line is the world's leading container shipper). But the company only owns 50% of the country's largest supermarket chain, because Hr. Møller was friends with the family who own the other half. Mærsk Air was a costly mistake, as were other industrial ventures. Oil and gas has been a success, after the then Government asked the company to exploit the reserves found in the North Sea. True, it involved some risk; but it helps if you have a quasi-monopoly.
Fourthly, one of those businesses is a sizeable shareholding in Danske Bank, Denmark's largest financial institution, which effectively allows A.P. Møller-Mærsk to control it. When Danske Bank's Chairman retired a year or so ago, his replacement was the head of Mærsk Line; and when the long-standing Managing Director also retired this year, the Chairman chose to replace him with, er, himself. I have no idea whether, and if so, to what extent, A.P. Møller-Mærsk borrows money from Danske Bank; but having a country's largest company control its largest financial institution is not at all healthy. Imagine the outcry if (say) Exxon controlled Citibank, and the new CEO of Citibank was the former head of Exxon's exploration division; that gives you an idea.
All of which should have given business journalists and commentators more than enough material to ask some fairly searching questions. But that brings me to the last irritating thing. Hr. Møller was always treated with kid gloves. He is the only person (other than members of the royal family) that I have seen interviewed on Danish television, where the interviewer used the old-fashioned polite De ("they") form instead of the normal du ("you"), and the only person called Hr. Møller instead of his full name (this may sound churlish about being polite to an old man; but Denmark is an informal country, where even the Prime Minister is called Helle Thorning-Schmidt and not Ms/Mrs Thorning). Questions about the business got stonewalled answers and the stock response from the company that the whole thing ran on the concept of "rettidigt omhu" (literally care in time, but perhaps best translated as "be prepared"). This was treated as philosophically pathfinding instead of a mere platitude; besides, it didn't in any way deal with the issue of why A.P. Møller-Mærsk was an old-fashioned conglomerate instead of a focussed ports and shipping company.
There has been much comment on Hr. Møller's penchant for giving away a large part of his fortune to worthy causes. Yet even here, it was not without controversy. The family trust in his parents' name paid for Copenhagen's new opera house and then donated it to the state, without an architectural competition (normal in such circumstances). Hr. Møller pretended that the whole thing had nothing to do with him, but was in the spirit of his parents' wishes (even though they are long dead), got the Government to swallow that line, and then bullied them into paying for the running costs. The lack of criticism sort of sums up his untouchable status in Denmark.
(I have to admit to an interest in this charity work, since one of the family trusts gave the local cinema money to help with its digitalisation project. However, I don't think that that act of generosity outweighs the things above.)
So what now? Hr. Møller had no sons, but three daughters, the youngest of whom is set to take over his role as controlling shareholder, but who is not involved in day to day affairs. There are supposedly quality family members in the next generation, who work for the company. But I suspect that over time, there will be a gradual concentration on the shipping and ports business, and a gradual disengagement from some of the other activities, starting with the Danske Bank stake. A radical solution would be to do what many conglomerates have done and break the company up into its constituent parts; after all, although A.P. Møller-Mærsk is the world's leading container company, it still has only about 15% of the market, and the container business has lost money in recent years. However, it is a measure of the shadow that Hr. Møller casts over the business that I suspect that nobody will dare. A pity. Every Dane owns, either directly or indirectly through a pension fund or insurance company, a stake in A.P. Møller-Mærsk, and it's in their interests that it is run as efficiently as possible. Shipping companies don't own supermarkets elsewhere in the world, and I don't see why Denmark is different in that respect.
Walter Blotscher
An old man was laid to rest in Copenhagen yesterday. Since he was almost 99, it was perhaps not so surprising. However, the man in question was Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, reputedly Denmark's richest man, the former head of the country's biggest company A.P. Møller-Mærsk and still its controlling shareholder. So the funeral was not your average affair. The audience included most of the Danish royal family, five current and former Prime Ministers, and much of the business and political elite.
This is not going to be popular with Danish readers, but I have to admit to having had a dislike of Hr. Møller and his business methods, ever since my first job as a shipping analyst at an American bank. Four things bugged me. The first was an almost obsessive regard for secrecy. In the old days, all the group's assets were owned exactly 50% by each of two holding companies, Svendborg (the place where the company was started by Hr. Møller's father) and 1912 (the year). Since neither owned a majority of anything, the group got away with not having to produce any consolidated accounts, even though both companies were publicly quoted. Basically, no outsider knew what was going on. Market pressure eventually forced the dismembership of this construction some years ago, so there is now only one holding company, A.P. Møller-Mærsk; but the climate of secrecy remains.
Secondly, the group has used a trick which is quite common in Scandinavia, where there are A and B shares, with one lot having many times more votes than the other. This has allowed the family (well, various trusts, which are in turn controlled by the family) to tap the markets for capital without having to cede ultimate control.
Thirdly, by being big and retaining control, the company has got involved in all sorts of businesses, which would in other circumstances have cost managers their heads. Ports and terminals are a useful adjunct to the core shipping business (where Mærsk Line is the world's leading container shipper). But the company only owns 50% of the country's largest supermarket chain, because Hr. Møller was friends with the family who own the other half. Mærsk Air was a costly mistake, as were other industrial ventures. Oil and gas has been a success, after the then Government asked the company to exploit the reserves found in the North Sea. True, it involved some risk; but it helps if you have a quasi-monopoly.
Fourthly, one of those businesses is a sizeable shareholding in Danske Bank, Denmark's largest financial institution, which effectively allows A.P. Møller-Mærsk to control it. When Danske Bank's Chairman retired a year or so ago, his replacement was the head of Mærsk Line; and when the long-standing Managing Director also retired this year, the Chairman chose to replace him with, er, himself. I have no idea whether, and if so, to what extent, A.P. Møller-Mærsk borrows money from Danske Bank; but having a country's largest company control its largest financial institution is not at all healthy. Imagine the outcry if (say) Exxon controlled Citibank, and the new CEO of Citibank was the former head of Exxon's exploration division; that gives you an idea.
All of which should have given business journalists and commentators more than enough material to ask some fairly searching questions. But that brings me to the last irritating thing. Hr. Møller was always treated with kid gloves. He is the only person (other than members of the royal family) that I have seen interviewed on Danish television, where the interviewer used the old-fashioned polite De ("they") form instead of the normal du ("you"), and the only person called Hr. Møller instead of his full name (this may sound churlish about being polite to an old man; but Denmark is an informal country, where even the Prime Minister is called Helle Thorning-Schmidt and not Ms/Mrs Thorning). Questions about the business got stonewalled answers and the stock response from the company that the whole thing ran on the concept of "rettidigt omhu" (literally care in time, but perhaps best translated as "be prepared"). This was treated as philosophically pathfinding instead of a mere platitude; besides, it didn't in any way deal with the issue of why A.P. Møller-Mærsk was an old-fashioned conglomerate instead of a focussed ports and shipping company.
There has been much comment on Hr. Møller's penchant for giving away a large part of his fortune to worthy causes. Yet even here, it was not without controversy. The family trust in his parents' name paid for Copenhagen's new opera house and then donated it to the state, without an architectural competition (normal in such circumstances). Hr. Møller pretended that the whole thing had nothing to do with him, but was in the spirit of his parents' wishes (even though they are long dead), got the Government to swallow that line, and then bullied them into paying for the running costs. The lack of criticism sort of sums up his untouchable status in Denmark.
(I have to admit to an interest in this charity work, since one of the family trusts gave the local cinema money to help with its digitalisation project. However, I don't think that that act of generosity outweighs the things above.)
So what now? Hr. Møller had no sons, but three daughters, the youngest of whom is set to take over his role as controlling shareholder, but who is not involved in day to day affairs. There are supposedly quality family members in the next generation, who work for the company. But I suspect that over time, there will be a gradual concentration on the shipping and ports business, and a gradual disengagement from some of the other activities, starting with the Danske Bank stake. A radical solution would be to do what many conglomerates have done and break the company up into its constituent parts; after all, although A.P. Møller-Mærsk is the world's leading container company, it still has only about 15% of the market, and the container business has lost money in recent years. However, it is a measure of the shadow that Hr. Møller casts over the business that I suspect that nobody will dare. A pity. Every Dane owns, either directly or indirectly through a pension fund or insurance company, a stake in A.P. Møller-Mærsk, and it's in their interests that it is run as efficiently as possible. Shipping companies don't own supermarkets elsewhere in the world, and I don't see why Denmark is different in that respect.
Walter Blotscher
Saturday, 21 April 2012
THE 2011 PROJECT (7)
The 2011 Project is, in principle, completed. However, since part of it was building a kitchen garden, it continues into the future.
This weekend is planting time, so today I went out and bought some seeds. Last year was a bit of a trial attempt, and I am going for the full monty this year; potatoes, squash, carrots, leeks, lettuce and rhubarb. The last came from my mother-in-law's garden, after I dug up half of one of her plants this morning. Most things split in half with a spade and transported a mile down the road would not survive. But she assures me that rhubarb are hardy things, and that it will survive.
When I came back, I finished turning the earth with my fork, raked it down nice and smooth, and put the rhubarb in one corner. I then dug out the drainage channels around the square. They won't keep the weeds and tree roots out, but they will have to work a bit harder than they otherwise would. Tomorrow I will plant the whole thing, and then sit back and wait.
After all that exercise, I treated myself to a litre bottle of San Miguel beer with my dinner. I had earned it.
And here is the final result, complete with rhubarb plant, sticks, drainage channels and a shade tree that got a haircut this morning, so that it didn't get in the way.
Walter Blotscher
The 2011 Project is, in principle, completed. However, since part of it was building a kitchen garden, it continues into the future.
This weekend is planting time, so today I went out and bought some seeds. Last year was a bit of a trial attempt, and I am going for the full monty this year; potatoes, squash, carrots, leeks, lettuce and rhubarb. The last came from my mother-in-law's garden, after I dug up half of one of her plants this morning. Most things split in half with a spade and transported a mile down the road would not survive. But she assures me that rhubarb are hardy things, and that it will survive.
When I came back, I finished turning the earth with my fork, raked it down nice and smooth, and put the rhubarb in one corner. I then dug out the drainage channels around the square. They won't keep the weeds and tree roots out, but they will have to work a bit harder than they otherwise would. Tomorrow I will plant the whole thing, and then sit back and wait.
After all that exercise, I treated myself to a litre bottle of San Miguel beer with my dinner. I had earned it.
And here is the final result, complete with rhubarb plant, sticks, drainage channels and a shade tree that got a haircut this morning, so that it didn't get in the way.
Walter Blotscher
Friday, 20 April 2012
BLOG STATS
How many people read this blog is a very closely guarded secret. But I can divulge a couple of nuggets.
First, by far my most popular post is the one I did on my trip to Hong Kong earlier this year. And I am starting to get some traction in Russia of all places.
Business tycoons looking for cheap holidays or to improve their English? Or am I being set up as the channel for the next world virus? Watch this space.
Walter Blotscher
How many people read this blog is a very closely guarded secret. But I can divulge a couple of nuggets.
First, by far my most popular post is the one I did on my trip to Hong Kong earlier this year. And I am starting to get some traction in Russia of all places.
Business tycoons looking for cheap holidays or to improve their English? Or am I being set up as the channel for the next world virus? Watch this space.
Walter Blotscher
Thursday, 19 April 2012
MY ANNUAL WALKING TOUR (2)
I am now back from my annual walking tour, which I have done these past 10 years with some mates from university days. In moving the date from the summer half-term break to the beginning of April, I thought we would be in for cold, wet weather. However, although there was still some snow on the ground and bouts of hail from time to time, there was also a lot of sunshine. My daughter said to me this afternoon over tea and freshly baked (by her) chocolate cake that she thought I had got a tan.
The switch from the Lakes to the Yorkshire Dales worked well. The latter are both lower (max. 700 metres high rather than 1,000) and gentler, which is good for the knees of increasingly decrepit 50-year olds. The landscape also allows for more prosperous sheep farming, to judge by the number of quad bikes and 4x4 vehicles in the area.
We stayed in Keld at the head of Swaledale, the crossroads of two long-distance footpaths; the coast to coast (east-west) and the Pennine Way (north-south). Many of the villages in Swaledale (Thwaite, Muker, Reethe, Keld) have names with Norwegian roots, reflecting their original settlement by Vikings. We Brits tend to lump the Vikings all together, but there were in fact two distinct conquest routes. Danes took and held most of Eastern England, but there was also an influx of Norwegians into Lancashire and Yorkshire from their Irish base at Dublin. Danes and Norwegians didn't get on that well; and when the Nowegians tried to take the regional capital at York, they got stuffed by their fellow Scandinavians and had to beat a hasty retreat.
After a walk around Sedburgh on the Thursday, and a visit to one of the best second-hand bookshops I have been to, we did two long circular walks from Keld, one south up to Great Shunner Fell and one north over Hall Moor. The latter included a fair bit of yomping across moorland kept for grouse shooting. This can be boggy and sad, as Eeyore would say; but there has been very little rain this winter, and it was quite dry. In fact, nearly the whole of England south of Yorkshire is undergoing a drought at the moment, with hosepipe bans in most places. Counties such as Essex, where I stayed when I arrived, are parched, and there is even talk of piping water from Scotland and Wales to the thirsty south east.
Coming down from Hill Moor we stopped off at the Tan Hill Inn, at 528m the highest pub in England. It is stuck out in the middle of nowhere, with nothing around it except moors and great views. It was windy but sunny, so we sat outside in the lee of the building and had a late afternoon pint of Black Sheep, the excellent local brew from Masham. It was terrific.
After three days of walking, I spent some time with my Mum, who is still going strong at 86. As usual, she fed me like a foie de gras goose, and gave me a jar of Roses' lime marmalade to take back to Denmark. I had some on my toast this morning, and very good it was too.
The good weather has followed me across the North Sea. I have done my first complete mow of the summer; and this evening I turned over my kitchen garden with a fork against the background of a sun sinking gently over the horizon. I will finish preparation tomorrow after my mother-in-law has visited to inspect the new rose garden, then I'll plant some vegetables over the weekend. All that walking seems to have made me positively agricultural.
Walter Blotscher
I am now back from my annual walking tour, which I have done these past 10 years with some mates from university days. In moving the date from the summer half-term break to the beginning of April, I thought we would be in for cold, wet weather. However, although there was still some snow on the ground and bouts of hail from time to time, there was also a lot of sunshine. My daughter said to me this afternoon over tea and freshly baked (by her) chocolate cake that she thought I had got a tan.
The switch from the Lakes to the Yorkshire Dales worked well. The latter are both lower (max. 700 metres high rather than 1,000) and gentler, which is good for the knees of increasingly decrepit 50-year olds. The landscape also allows for more prosperous sheep farming, to judge by the number of quad bikes and 4x4 vehicles in the area.
We stayed in Keld at the head of Swaledale, the crossroads of two long-distance footpaths; the coast to coast (east-west) and the Pennine Way (north-south). Many of the villages in Swaledale (Thwaite, Muker, Reethe, Keld) have names with Norwegian roots, reflecting their original settlement by Vikings. We Brits tend to lump the Vikings all together, but there were in fact two distinct conquest routes. Danes took and held most of Eastern England, but there was also an influx of Norwegians into Lancashire and Yorkshire from their Irish base at Dublin. Danes and Norwegians didn't get on that well; and when the Nowegians tried to take the regional capital at York, they got stuffed by their fellow Scandinavians and had to beat a hasty retreat.
After a walk around Sedburgh on the Thursday, and a visit to one of the best second-hand bookshops I have been to, we did two long circular walks from Keld, one south up to Great Shunner Fell and one north over Hall Moor. The latter included a fair bit of yomping across moorland kept for grouse shooting. This can be boggy and sad, as Eeyore would say; but there has been very little rain this winter, and it was quite dry. In fact, nearly the whole of England south of Yorkshire is undergoing a drought at the moment, with hosepipe bans in most places. Counties such as Essex, where I stayed when I arrived, are parched, and there is even talk of piping water from Scotland and Wales to the thirsty south east.
Coming down from Hill Moor we stopped off at the Tan Hill Inn, at 528m the highest pub in England. It is stuck out in the middle of nowhere, with nothing around it except moors and great views. It was windy but sunny, so we sat outside in the lee of the building and had a late afternoon pint of Black Sheep, the excellent local brew from Masham. It was terrific.
After three days of walking, I spent some time with my Mum, who is still going strong at 86. As usual, she fed me like a foie de gras goose, and gave me a jar of Roses' lime marmalade to take back to Denmark. I had some on my toast this morning, and very good it was too.
The good weather has followed me across the North Sea. I have done my first complete mow of the summer; and this evening I turned over my kitchen garden with a fork against the background of a sun sinking gently over the horizon. I will finish preparation tomorrow after my mother-in-law has visited to inspect the new rose garden, then I'll plant some vegetables over the weekend. All that walking seems to have made me positively agricultural.
Walter Blotscher
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