The departure of the German industrialist casts a shadow on the attraction of the German financial center in which Linde was the only company to play a leading role.
The Dax index, which brings together the elite of the German stock market, will lose its main capitalization, the industrial gases producer Linde, whose shareholders on Wednesday approved a single listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The German industrialist’s exit casts a shadow on the attractiveness of Germany’s financial center where Linde was the only company to be in the top 100 global valuations, according to firm EY.
Group shareholders on Wednesday approved 93% of the delisting in Frankfurt, Linde said in a statement. “Linde shareholders will automatically receive one share of the new holding company, which will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, in exchange for each Linde share they own.Linde said in a statement.
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The group announced in October its intention to maintain a listing only on Wall Street, given that the rules of the operator Deutsche Börse limit its performance on the stock exchange. Linde – which merged with US rival Praxair in 2018 and has since been listed in Germany and the US – will say goodbye to Dax from 1 March.
A valuation of 150 billion euros
“This double listing (…) has limited the value of our shares, due to restrictions in Europe”having “led to increased complexity”, said the CEO of the group, Sanjiv Lamba. The group is significantly burdened by the rule that prohibits a single security from exceeding 10% of the total weight of the index. Linde, whose valuation is estimated at around €150 billion, has routinely exceeded this threshold, triggering an automatic share sale. Without the world leader in industrial gases, the main Dax groups will be the software supplier SAP, whose market value is currently around 130 billion euros, and the industrial group Siemens, with 121 billion euros.
According to German media, it is the arms manufacturer Rheinmetall that should be promoted to replace it among the 40 values of the DAX. Linde has assured that his exit from Dax will not have “no impact on (…) our employees, our customers or our commitment to the regions in which we operate, including Germany, which will continue to be an important market for us“, according to Sanjiv Lamba.