Investor fair Invest: forest in Panama, gold and silver are in demand

Green investments are more popular than ever.

This was also shown at the investor fair Invest in Stuttgart.

The stands of providers of the relevant systems were well attended.

This also applies to the stand of the The Generation Forest cooperative, a German-Panamanian project that invests in the reforestation of cleared forest areas in the country, as co-founder Andreas Eke explained in a video call.

Tree species that are of interest to the international timber trade are being planted on the bare areas.

The return on capital employed should average 4.5 percent over time.

The principle sounds simple: a member of the cooperative buys a forest area and earns money by marketing the wood.

The cooperative was founded in 2016 and claims to have collected over 5,000 members and over 20 million euros.

A share currently costs 1431 euros.

And with that you can protect the climate through 500 square meters of forest.

Forest with risk of total loss

The investment is intended for a long-term investment.

Because the commercial thinning of the forest can only take place after a certain time.

But Eke made it clear at the same time: "There is also a risk of total loss." In the past, cooperatives in Germany had repeatedly made headlines that invested money from investors in the area of ​​housing construction.

The insolvency of Inventus caused a stir.

Sustainable investments are investments that include environmental factors, social responsibility and good corporate governance.

Last December, the EU laid down specific criteria for climate-friendly investments and, despite widespread criticism, proposed that investments in gas and nuclear power be classified as sustainable financial investments for the time being.

Renewable energies are already classified as climate-friendly in the classification system called taxonomy.

Low interest rates are also popular

You can invest sustainably in a variety of ways: from direct investments in wind turbines to green federal bonds to actively managed funds and ETFs that replicate a stock index.

Such funds usually exclude shares in companies that make money from coal, oil, alcohol or weapons.

But there are no generally applicable criteria or a kind of seal of approval.

Around 120 exhibitors took part in the largest German investor fair this year.

According to Messe Stuttgart, there were 132 exhibitors before the pandemic.

Around 8,500 visitors obtained information at the two-day event.

This is also the case with the Estonian online bank Bigbank, which vehemently advertised fixed-term deposits.

The provider has already anticipated the expected increase in key interest rates from the European Central Bank and advertised 1.5 percent with a three-year term.

Despite higher inflation rates, most people in Germany continue to invest their money in forms of savings that bear little interest.

In a survey commissioned by the Association of German Banks (BdB), 45 percent stated that they parked money in their savings account.

38 percent rely on call money or time deposits.

The proportions were unchanged from last year's survey.

Multiple entries were possible.

The forms of saving mentioned yield little or nothing at all when interest rates are down.

In these uncertain times, the stands of gold suppliers were also in demand at the fair.

Demand in 2022 has been strong so far, even greater than in 2021, said Bernhard Urban of the Austrian Mint.

He referred to the Ukraine war and the still noticeable after-effects of the corona pandemic.

Many investors are hoping for inflation protection from gold.

This is all the more true as the situation for the central banks is becoming increasingly difficult.

After all, the war not only drives up inflation, but also weighs on economic growth.

The disadvantage: There is no interest or dividends for gold.

Ultimately, the return can only be achieved from a rising gold price.

“Men think about retirement provision when they buy something, and women are more likely to give the precious metal away,” Urban said.

He also sees an advantage of gold in the fact that no sales tax is due on purchase, but other raw materials are.

One stand at the fair caught the eye: Bullion Art offered high-quality silver art sculptures.

And in times of need you can turn that into money.

“In contrast to works of art made of canvas or bronze, which can prove difficult to sell, especially in times of crisis, the commodity silver is traded internationally on a daily basis.

It is therefore always possible to sell a silver sculpture and redeem at least the price of the material," it says.

In the past, in search of alternatives with better interest, investors had also opted for investments in crypto assets such as Bitcoin, Ether and Co.

But the values ​​​​experienced a slump in the past few months.

Nevertheless, Boerse Stuttgart has recorded increasing user numbers for its Bison app, with which you can buy cryptocurrencies relatively easily, in recent months.

There are currently around 640,000 active users.

But the trading volume so far in 2022 is lower than in the strong prior-year period.

Dragan Radanovic, spokesman for the management of Boerse Stuttgart GmbH, said that trading turnover on the market specializing in private investors had fallen because of the crisis.

He imagines that due to rising interest rates, more bonds will be traded again.

However, they are currently not attractive for private investors, also because of the high entry threshold: Many corporate bonds are de facto not tradable for private investors because of a denomination of 100,000 euros or more.