Conti looks back on ‘overwhelmingly positive’ year on the DAX

It’s been a year since Continental returned to what it calls the “stock exchange premier league”, and the German firm considers its DAX comeback to have been an “overwhelmingly positive” one. Over the last twelve months the company’s shares have risen more than 54 per cent to €125.55 and even recorded an all-time high of €127.45. And after joining in 22nd position for market capitalisation, the company moved up to 19th place thanks to strong share performance.

“In the past twelve months, we have profited from good operating developments and also from the brighter outlook for Europe as reflected in trend indicators. At €25.5 billion, we even attained the highest market capitalisation in our almost 142-year company history,” said Continental’s CFO Wolfgang Schäfer. “This overwhelmingly positive development honours the work of our 175,000 employees. In addition, it demonstrates the trust placed in us by analysts as well as by share and asset investors. This applies to the development of our share prices but also to the successful implementation of our long-term financing strategy in the past four years.” 

Continental stock was first traded on the stock exchange in Hanover in 1873/74. In 1988, the company numbered the founding members of the DAX, however due to insufficiently high market capitalisation, it moved to the MDAX in 1996. It made a DAX comeback in 2003, yet the fast exit rule put Continental back on the MDAX in December 2008, again on account of insufficiently high market capitalisation. Almost four years later, at the start of trading on 24 September 2012, the Continental shares were once again being quoted among the highest-selling market-listed German companies.

At present, Continental shares are listed on three German stock exchanges: Frankfurt (Prime Standard), Hanover/Hamburg (NISAX), and Stuttgart. Its shares are also traded in the US in the form of a sponsored ADR (American Depositary Receipt) programme on the OTC (over the counter) market.