September 18, 2007 (LPAC)--Guenther Verheugen, the European Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry, strongly attacked hedge funds in an interview in the Sept. 17 issue of Der Spiegel magazine. The Spiegel interviewer first provocatively asked Verheugen a question of whether he saw a threatening trend in Russia's Gazprom's considering buying Germany's Eon energy company, or if a Chinese state company were to buy a German company. Verheugen replied, "not at all." Then Verheugen turned around the interview, concerning the threat of hedge funds: "Let me be very clear: I am no friend of hedge funds. Takeovers by hedge funds regularly lead to the break-up of companies, ending with the sale or closure of company divisions, all in the name of an even higher return. Later it turns out once competitive companies were ruined and jobs wantonly destroyed."

Verheugen served, as a member of the SPD, in the German Bundestag from 1983 until 1999, and as Minister of State in the Foreign Ministry in the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, 1998-99.

Spiegel then asked, "Let's talk specifics: Imagine an Anglo-American hedge fund was preparing to take over Deutsche Telekom. It announces that it will asset-strip the company in order to make the individual company divisions more efficient." Verheugen answered, "To me, that would definitely be the point at which the country's strategic interests force the federal government to intervene."