Nivea
Beiersdorf - an Example of a Successful Political Strategy
Politics is sometimes aiding business. A clear example happened in Hamburg in October 2003. The German insurer Allianz owned 44% of the shares of the Beiersdorf Corporation and actually wanted to sell these shares. was one of the firms which wanted to acquire Beiersdorf because Beiersdorf owned Nivea a brand with a very strong market position.
However the management of Beiersdorf wanted to keep its independence and did not like to be annexed by a giant company like P&G and was afraid that after the take-over P & G would dismantle the company. Because of cost considerations P&G would surely relocate the manufacturing of Nivea products to one of its own factories and integrate the research department in its own R & D organization and thus a great many valuable jobs would be lost for the city of Hamburg.
Now a German consortium was formed to try to obtain the Allianz shares. This group was led by Dieter Ammer CEO of also a Hamburg company (coffee). However he could not complete the deal because a part of the necessary billions was missing. Now the City of Hamburg offered help and the mayor of Hamburg Ole von Beust secured a loan of 1.1 billion Euros. Dieter Ammer and the City of Hamburg together succeeded in keeping Beiersdorf out of the hands of P&G.
The is of considerable economic importance for Hamburg. It secures 5000 jobsand brings in at least 200 million Euros a year in taxes.
The moral of this case is if you are important enough politics will help you.
