Quarterly balance: DAX companies make significantly less profit

The companies in the first German stock exchange league earned significantly less overall in the summer than in the same quarter of the previous year. Above all, the weakness of the automotive industry ruined the interim balance of the 40 companies in the German stock index, as the consulting firm EY has calculated.

The DAX companies’ profits before interest and taxes (EBIT) fell by a total of 8.5 percent to around 35.9 billion euros. According to the calculation, the six car manufacturers and suppliers listed in the leading index even recorded a 45 percent drop in profits in the third quarter compared to the same period last year.

“The record margins that the car companies were able to achieve in the post-Corona boom have hidden deep structural problems in Germany as a location,” warned EY partner Mathieu Meyer. “Germany is in fierce competition with countries that have a significantly better cost structure. In good times this can be overlooked, in bad times it becomes a problem.”

Record figures in the financial sector at least ensured that the stock market heavyweights’ total turnover in the third quarter was a good 438.5 billion euros, 1.0 percent above the level of the same period last year.

But not a general downward trend

It is certainly not the case that all top German companies are in a downward spiral, EY concluded. Almost two thirds (63 percent) of the companies examined recorded an increase in sales in the third quarter, while this was the case for more than half (59 percent) of operating profits.

According to the list, Deutsche Telekom once again achieved the highest quarterly profit with an operating profit of over 6.1 billion euros, followed by the insurer Allianz (3.9 billion euros) and Siemens (2.9 billion euros). Siemens Energy and Bayer reported an operating loss in their interim balance sheets.