Germany’s stock market heavyweights go into the from with record results behind them Ukraine-War overshadowed current year. Despite delivery bottlenecks and a lack of material, the 40 companies listed in the German share index (Dax) closed the past year at a record level, as calculated by the consulting and auditing company EY.
Accordingly, sales – without banks – increased by almost 14 percent compared to the Corona crisis year 2020 to the best value of around 1.6 trillion euros. The operating profit improved in total by a whopping 122 percent to around 169.9 billion euros. The companies exceeded the level of the Corona pre-crisis year 2019 by 62 percent in terms of profit and 11 percent in terms of sales. Since September 20, 2021, the first German stock exchange league has had 40 instead of 30 members, and EY has retrospectively adjusted its calculations accordingly.
“However, with the war in Ukraine, a new stage of uncertainty and geopolitical confrontation has been reached, which makes all previous economic forecasts waste,” said Henrik Ahlers, CEO of EY on Tuesday. According to EY, significant long-term effects on the German economy are foreseeable. “The pandemic was the first shock, which, among other things, put a strain on supply chains to an unprecedented extent, the war in Ukraine is the second,” said Ahlers.
Companies were able to pass on increasing costs to customers
According to EY, most top companies increased sales and profits last year despite disrupted supply chains, material bottlenecks and rising logistics and material costs – “also because it was often possible to pass on increased costs to customers.”
According to the information, the main driver in 2021 was business in Asia, where sales increased by 16 percent in total. Growth was 15 percent in North America and 10 percent in Europe. “Just China is and will remain an enormously important growth market for many top German corporations, despite the difficult framework conditions,” said Ahlers. However, the risks associated with a strong dependence on individual sales markets have increased.
Most profitable company was last year Volkswagen: The car company generated an operating profit of 19.3 billion euros – twice as much as in the previous year. Mercedes-Benz took second place in the profit ranking with 16 billion euros – ahead of the insurance group alliance and the carmaker bmw (each 13.4 billion euros).