Commerzbank is pushing for a return to the Dax.

On Monday morning, the bank published the first positive business figures for 2022 as a whole, so that Deutsche Börse, as the index operator, can take Commerzbank into account for the place in the Dax that Linde will free up on February 27.

According to the latest data from Bloomberg, Commerzbank has a market value of its free float of 10.3 billion euros, just ahead of Rheinmetall, the hottest competitor for promotion to the Dax.

The armaments company currently has a market value of 9.9 billion euros.

With slight price gains on Monday and a significant price loss by Rheinmetall in the first hours of trading, Commerzbank further expanded its lead over Rheinmetall in terms of market value.

Hanno Mussler

Editor in Business.

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So far, however, Rheinmetall has been considered the favorite to move up from the M-Dax to the Dax because Commerzbank did not meet a basic criterion of Deutsche Börse AG for its most important index: two years in a row profitability, measured by the key figure profit, which is usually not given much attention by banks before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda).

After a loss in 2020, Commerzbank had only one year of profit in 2021, so Commerzbank was not previously qualified for the relevant ranking of Deutsche Börse AG for the Dax.

This has changed now.

As announced by Commerzbank on Monday, it achieved earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of almost EUR 3.4 billion in 2022.

The bank also made a profit of a good two billion euros before taxes.

Actually, Commerzbank did not want to announce its business figures for 2022 until February 16th.

"We have decided to publish Commerzbank's Ebitda for 2022 now in order to enable the companies on the German stock exchange to consider us as a successor candidate for Linde in the Dax 40 after two consecutive years without losses ", explained Commerzbank CFO Bettina Orlopp.

Commerzbank was kicked out of the Dax in September 2018, and the now insolvent payment company Wirecard was the one that rose for them at the time.

It was only afterwards that Deutsche Börse introduced the profitability criterion for the Dax and increased the number of members from thirty to forty.

While the profitability criterion prevented Commerzbank from returning to the Dax earlier, the increase to 40 members makes Commerzbank a Dax candidate in view of its market value.

The company was one of the few price winners on the German stock exchange last year because it benefited greatly from the rise in interest rates.