Starting from September 20, 10 new companies will be included in the German DAX index. Among them are Airbus, Brenntag, HelloFresh, Porsche Automobil Holding, Puma SE, Qiagen, Sartorius AG Vz, Siemens Healthineers AG, Symrise AG and Zalando SE. At the same time, the financial managers of the German blue chips faced stricter requirements for supervision and corporate governance after the revision of the requirements for inclusion in the DAX. The changes in the requirements were caused by the scandal surrounding the electronic payments company Wirecard after the discovery of a $2 billion breach in its accounting. The DAX index, which currently has a market value of about $1.2 trillion, will be expanded to include a wider range of companies, including pharmaceutical and retail firms. Deutsche Börse has changed the admission criteria, choosing only the market capitalization. Moreover, new participants should have a minimum liquidity of 1 billion euros, which is equivalent to $1.19 billion, or 20% of their annual market capitalization. Also, DAX candidates must report positive operating profit, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, for two full years before joining the index.
