Germany’s 100 top listed companies have a study
According to the auditing firm Ernst&Young (EY), the difficult conditions have been felt this year. According to data from EY, 66 of the 100 companies with the highest sales recorded an increase in revenue in the first nine months, while 34 recorded a decline compared to the same period last year. In the previous year, almost all companies (93 percent) had increased sales.
Overall, according to the analysis, there is a decline in sales of nine percent for the 100 listed companies with the highest sales. The evaluations showed that this resulted from the sharp decline in the development of energy suppliers. Due to the sharp drop in electricity prices, energy suppliers’ sales fell by 44 percent.
The auditing and consulting company analyzed the development of the 100 listed companies in Germany with the highest sales in the period from January to September 2023. Banks and insurance companies were not included.
Auto industry with double-digit sales increase
Volkswagen, the German Telekom, Mercedes Benz and BMW According to the information, they occupy the first four places in the profit ranking. After the Mainz-based biotechnology company BioNTech was the most profitable German company last year with a profit margin of 71.7 percent, this year, according to EY, the chip company Infineon (24.1 percent) leads the margin ranking.
The automobile industry was the only sector that, according to the information, achieved a double-digit increase in sales compared to the previous year: While automobile manufacturers and suppliers grew by eleven percent, other industrial companies only achieved an increase of five percent and trading companies grew by four percent.
According to the EY analysis, things went significantly worse for the healthcare industry, which now recorded a decline in sales of twelve percent after the Corona boom. Logistics companies even shrank by 14 percent, while the chemical industry recorded a decline of 20 percent.
World political situation as an inhibitor to growth
“The headwind is increasing,” explained the CEO of EY Germany, Henrik Ahlers. “Many companies have recently only grown slightly – if at all – and often with growth rates below the inflation rate.” The growth driver this year was still the automotive industry, “but the air is also getting thinner for Germany’s flagship industry in view of sluggish global new car sales.”
The global political uncertainties and wars also led to “significant uncertainty among both companies and the population,” said Ahlers. “Large leaps in growth are not expected for the coming year.”