Evaluation: Dax companies increase profits despite car crisis
More sales, more profit: Germany's largest stock exchange companies have done good business overall in the third quarter. However, things are not going well in all industries. And many companies are cutting jobs.
Germany's largest companies on the stock market ended the third quarter with increased profits despite a weakness in the automotive industry, according to consultancy firm EY. The 40 companies in the Deutscher Aktienindex (Dax) reported a combined net profit of around 37.7 billion euros, before taxes and interest (EBIT), which is an increase of 4.6 percent or approximately 1.7 billion euros compared to the previous year.
Sales, excluding banks, rose by 4.5 percent to around 460.5 billion euros. However, while some companies, such as RWE, Rheinmetall, and Siemens Energy, reported double-digit percentage increases in sales, the automotive companies Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Continental saw significant declines in revenue.
Henrik Ahlers, chairman of EY's management, noted that the automotive industry remains under significant pressure and threatens to put thousands of jobs at risk, with possible factory closures. The automotive sector is facing considerable pressure and clouding the overall picture, Ahlers stated. Meanwhile, some Dax companies, which published employee data, employed nearly 3.2 million people as of September 30th, a decrease of around 49,400 or 1.5 percent compared to the previous year. Of these 28 companies, 13 reduced their workforce.
Positive signs indicate that investment readiness is increasing across much of the economy. Ahlers said, "Growth is now taking place on several pillars: energy, infrastructure, defense, and technology are all developing dynamically." The highest individual quarterly profit among Dax companies was reported by Deutsche Telekom at approximately 7.4 billion euros, followed by Allianz at 4.7 billion euros and Siemens at 3.3 billion euros.
Among the 27 companies that increased their earnings, 10 saw a decrease in their operational results. Notably, Siemens Energy, Eon, Mercedes-Benz, Daimler Truck, Rheinmetall, and Infineon reported significant increases in their quarterly profits. The highest quarterly loss was incurred by VW, with over 5.8 billion euros.
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