German arms group Rheinmetall is to be included in Germany’s leading index, the DAX, operator Deutsche Börse announced on Friday evening.
The Dusseldorf-based company will replace dialysis specialist Fresenius Medical Care (FMC) AG in the top German stock market league as of March 20. FMC will then be relegated to the index of medium-sized stocks, the MDAX.
Rheinmetall currently has a stock market value of more than €10.8 billion ($11.5 billion). The share price has almost doubled since the Russian invasion of Ukraine just over a year ago.
Rheinmetall is Germany’s largest armaments group with around 29,500 employees, 15,000 of them in Germany. Business is booming, and the company has added jobs in the past year.
The positive economic outlook is also due to rising demand from other NATO and EU countries. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had “once again ensured stronger and faster demand,” a Rheinmetall spokesman said recently. “We have years of strong growth ahead of us.”
Companies in the defence industry are also striving to join the MDAX: defence electronics manufacturer Hensoldt is replacing biofuel producer Verbio. In addition, technology group Jenoptik is replacing Software AG. Verbio and Software AG are being relegated to the SDAX.
A few weeks ago German lender Commerzbank returned to the DAX. Commerzbank’s return was made possible by the withdrawal of the gas manufacturer Linde from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.