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German to English translations [PRO] Bus/Financial - Finance (general) / Consolidated Financial Statements
German term or phrase:Ausschreibung wurde unterzeichnet
The context is as follows:
Der Ausbau der Windenergie im Jahr 2018 wurde durch die Ausschreibung bestimmt, deren Volumen 2,8 GW betrug. Insgesamt wurden nur Zuschläge für 2,3 GW erteilt, da die Ausschreibungen im 3. und 4. Quartal ""unterzeichnet"" waren. Die durchschnittlichen Zuschlagswerte stiegen von 3,82 ct/kWh im Februar auf zuletzt 6,16 ct/kWh an.
Has anyone come across the expression "unterzeichnet" in this context before or knows what it means? I only know this as "signing", but you wouldn't sign a tender, so it must mean something different here. Many thanks for your help!
So, actually, no, it's not about awarded; it's about too few bidders. Some real-world examples:
"But Colombia's first attempt to auction solar and wind energy contracts ended without a result last month after the government said that because many bidding companies failed to meet requirements the projects would have ended up in the hands of too few applicants." https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-6810057/...
"While this may increase the pool of capital available for projects, there is a perception that there is already too much money chasing too few bankable projects." http://www.energynet.co.uk/webfm_send/2088
See also SQA link further below. Not saying you can't use something else. Why you'd do that, I don't know. Similar to this horrid "energy transition"--but that's a topic for another day.
Yes, you could probably find a few. In any case, I don't think going by Ghits is a suitable approach, so this doesn't rule out undersubscribe. I just think there are easier and more common ways to say this.
Back to a German definition: "Ausgeschrieben waren 670 MW Windenergieleistung an Land. Eingereicht wurden jedoch nur 62 Gebote mit einem Volumen von 396 MW. Damit war die letzte Windenergieausschreibung deutlich unterzeichnet." https://www.energiefirmen.de/news/artikel-35543-wind-ausschr...
However, please don't claim it's a frequently used expression.
"Ausschreibung unterzeichnet" returns fewer than 100 Ghits (or less than 300 if you expand the search) and I didn't even limit the search to UK/US websites.
Because unterzeichnet can als mean "signed," a good deal of these Ghits aren't even relevant. E.g.: "Ein Generalplanvertrag aber darf erst nach einer europaweiten Ausschreibung unterzeichnet werden." https://www.karl-may-magazin.de/aktuell/nachrichten/lesen/ar...
Thanks Björn - but it is hard to ignore that "undersubscribed tender" is an absolutely common and frequently used expression (in both industry and EU documents) if you believe Google. I don't think they all got it wrong, do you? I'll stick with unsubscribed as I just can't see any problem in it really. I would dig deeper if only one or two websites would made use of it, but just look, it's out there en masse. Cheers
In the end, it's your choice. I'm just giving you some options. I wish Wendy had posted some of her ideas. It's just my fear that the term originated with the EU and instead of questioning its validity, some ENS authors just "roll with it."
I translate/edit a lot of documents about RE and I have never ever seen this used anywhere.
It's not a suitable analogy, in my opinion: You subscribe for = you agree to buy something, such as securities. You don't subscribe for a tender because you agree to buy the project. Really like to know how many ppl would get that.
Then, there's the added issue that you're using tender--as if this is one big project. It's not and the German isn't very clear about this (you see that by looking at the 1st and 2nd sentence, where Ausschreibung is once in the singular and once in the plural).
You could say "...because of an insufficient number of tenders in the third and fourth quarters." Simple as that.
Plus, no need to explain anything.
Best
Daniel Arnold (X)
Australia
ASKER
20:10 Aug 18, 2019
Yes, and analogously if there is a bond (or new shares if you want) being issued but not enough uptake then you'd also call it undersubscribed. Same here. They got bids but not up to the capacity they actually wanted to award. TBH I do think that the term is spot on in this context :-)
Need a bit of time to sort through this. Two things upfront:
1) I should note that there is open/public/competitive tender, which you'd probably translate as Ausschreibung in context, but that's a pretty complex topic. Call me old school, but I like my tender(UK)/bid(US) and RFT/RFP/RFB or invitation/put sth. out to tender for Ausschreibung/ausschreiben.
2) Not sure what Wendy thinks but I really like your "fell short of." You can only fall short of targets, objectives and the like, though--here, it's capacity targets. [Edit] Merely as an example: "Germany fell short of its target to add 2.8 GW of power generation capacity in the second half of 2018."
Best
Daniel Arnold (X)
Australia
ASKER
19:43 Aug 18, 2019
Hi Björn, appreciate your input, what is your suggestion then? Is undersubscribed not simply a more straight-forward way of saying that the bids that were submitted fell short of the tendered capacity?? Agree with the difference btw tender and tender process but that's not what my question was about. I do think undersubscribed makes sense when you know that it's about the capacity that's being tendered. Cheers
You cannot undersubscribe a tender; I'm sorry, but that is preposterous.
A tender is an offer to do work; a request or invitation to tender is something else. There was a ProZ Q about this many moons ago; calling an Ausschreibung a tender is Denglisch; just because you got the phrase "win a tender" doesn't make a difference.
[Edit] An example: "..how to modify and repeat the tendering processes if too few tenders are received to show that there has been adequate competition (application)..." https://www.sqa.org.uk/files/aq/HA3T04.pdf
I have no idea why Robin and Ted, both of whom I greatly admire, agreed to undersubscribe; they aren't issuing securities.
[Edit] What they probably want to say here is that too few companies met the requirements for this project/these projects or too few tenders were received.
Best
Daniel Arnold (X)
Australia
ASKER
15:46 Aug 18, 2019
Hi Wendy - appreciate your comment, it makes sense as oversubscribed appears in the report as well in a similar context. The whole report is in rather poor German, so that fits the picture as well. Have a lovely Sunday!
I realise the tenders were undersubscribed, but it doesn't really seem to fit in this sentence. I was wondering if - because of the uncertainty - it means that they didn't acquire the requisite financial backing until the 3rd and 4th quarters. Where are all the economics experts?!
Michael Martin, MA United States Local time: 19:12 Works in field Native speaker of: German, English PRO pts in category: 147
Grading comment
Thanks Martin!
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks so much!!! Spot on. It just didn't want to reveal itself to me today(well it is 32 degrees outside), but it's obvious to me now :-) Thanks Michael!
