Ticker Archive
MAY 2007
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- Germans fall behind peers on dividends
(Ft.com)
German companies are meaner than their international peers when sharing spoils with shareholders. Proposed dividend increases are barely keeping pace with last year’s hefty rises in profits.
The country’s 30 biggest public companies are paying out an average 35.3 per cent of 2006 profits, half a point less than the year before and below the rewards seen by investors elsewhere.
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- A new broom
(The Economist)
Klaus Kleinfeld told the supervisory board of Siemens that he would step down from the post of chief executive in October. The German engineering group is reeling from allegations that is paid bribes to secure contracts. An investigation is also under way into whether the management at Siemens financed a rival to its main trade union. Heinrich von Pierer, the board's chairman, resigned already.
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- Deutsche Börse to buy NY-based ISE
(Ft.com)
Deutsche Börse announced plans to buy the International Securities Exchange for $2.8bn in cash, extending the group’s US foothold with the addition of an options platform and a fledgling equities business. The agreement with the German group’s Eurex derivatives arm was expected to trigger another potential bidding war in the US derivatives sector, despite a price viewed as rich by analysts, with the recently-formed NYSE Euronext seen as a possible suitor.
