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Press Release08 March 2024Siemens AGMunich
Siemens celebrates 125 years as a stock-listed company
“Our
125th year on the stock exchange underscores our strong ability to innovate, transformation
capabilities and financial strength, which have made Siemens a leading global
technology company and a relevant player on the capital market,” said Ralf P.
Thomas, Chief Financial Officer of Siemens AG.
“Thanks
to numerous innovations, Siemens has not only written industrial and
technological history worldwide over the years, but also reinvented itself time
and again. We’re optimally positioned strategically, technologically and
economically to continue creating sustainable value in the future, too. Our
customers, shareholders and people benefit from this strength.”
Debut on the Berlin Stock Exchange
Siemens
was founded in Berlin as a small workshop for pointer telegraphs on October 1,
1847. Just a few decades later, Siemens was already an internationally
successful company. Company founder Werner von Siemens had always been opposed
to the company transitioning into a stock-listed company. He wanted to keep the
company completely in the family’s hands. His younger brother Carl von Siemens,
however, was convinced that “a stock corporation … would be much more powerful
than a private business. This is because it would have numerous associés, who would all have a certain
interest in protecting it and directing business to it.”
To gain access to new financing options
in the course of the electrical industry’s dynamic economic development from
the 1890s onward in order to continue to seize the rapid growth opportunities,
especially for major projects, the company opened up to the capital market: In
1897, the company changed its legal form to that of a stock-listed company called
Siemens & Halske AG. In March 1899, the company made its stock-market
debut.
It soon became evident how sought-after the
new Siemens shares were when their subscription began on March 4, 1899. Subscription
had to be immediately closed again because the share was very quickly oversubscribed.
Siemens shares were then traded on the Berlin Stock Exchange for the first time
beginning on March 8, 1899. On this first day of trading, the share
also got off to a brilliant start. By the close of trading, its price had risen
to 195 percent of its nominal value.
DAX
heavyweight from the start
Another milestone in the stock market
history of Siemens AG, which is the name under which the company has been
conducting business since 1966, was its inclusion in the German stock index DAX,
which was introduced in 1988. Since then, Siemens has continuously been listed
in the DAX, which is the most important index for Germany as a financial center.
Over the course of its transformation, the company repeatedly spun off business
units that were not part of its core industrial business. Many of them were floated
on the stock exchange as independent companies focused on their industry.
Today, in addition to Siemens, the DAX
includes three other major names that are innovation leaders in their sectors and
stem from Siemens. Together, they currently account for just under one sixth of
the DAX index weighting: Siemens AG, Siemens Healthineers AG,
Siemens Energy AG and Infineon Technologies AG.
Progressive
internationalization of shareholder structure
During the company’s 125-year stock-exchange
history, the shareholder and ownership structure has become increasingly
internationalized. As a company that operates globally in growth industries,
the global capital market recognizes Siemens as an attractive investment
opportunity. Today, shareholders from Germany hold around 27 percent of the
outstanding shares.
Profit
sharing in practice and employee share program
Siemens was also a pioneer in enabling
the people working at the company to participate in its development. Back in
1858, people working at Siemens were given a share in the company’s profits for
the first time. Since then, enabling the company’s people to participate in its
development has been a central component of Siemens’ company culture. This
principle has since been embedded in the company’s strategic environmental, sustainability
and governance framework DEGREE.
In 1969, people working at Siemens AG in
Germany had the opportunity to buy company shares at a preferential price for
the first time. In Germany, Siemens’ employee share program has developed to become
an integral part of the way it has focused on its people over the past 50
years. Siemens’ global share-plan program for its people, which was introduced
in 2008 and is currently offered to more than 240,000 eligible people who work
at Siemens in 62 countries, is one of the world’s largest employee share programs.
In total, more than 170,000 of the
approximately 320,000 people working at Siemens worldwide currently own company
shares. In this way, they are shaping a special culture of owning a stake in the
company. People working at Siemens hold around three percent of Siemens shares.
As a result, they form a large and important shareholder group alongside the
Siemens family, which holds around 6 percent of the shares.
Strong focus on shareholder returns
As a capital
market-oriented company, Siemens endeavors to offer its shareholders an
attractive return. In the last ten fiscal years alone, Siemens has paid out
dividends totaling over €30 billion. In terms of total shareholder return –
which is share price performance, including reinvested dividends – investors
more than doubled their invested capital during this period. In the same
period, the DAX benchmark index recorded an increase of around 79 percent.
Recently, too,
Siemens has continued writing its success story on the stock market. Since the
start of fiscal 2024, its share price has risen by another 34 percent and reached an all-time high of €184.84 on March 1,
2024.
Further information on Siemens
stock market history is available on Siemens Historical Institute’s
website at:
www.siemens.com/going-publicFor this press release
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Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a leading technology company focused on industry, infrastructure, transport, and healthcare. From more resource-efficient factories, resilient supply chains, and smarter buildings and grids, to cleaner and more comfortable transportation as well as advanced healthcare, the company creates technology with purpose adding real value for customers. By combining the real and the digital worlds, Siemens empowers its customers to transform their industries and markets, helping them to transform the everyday for billions of people. Siemens also owns a majority stake in the publicly listed company Siemens Healthineers, a globally leading medical technology provider shaping the future of healthcare.
In fiscal 2023, which ended on September 30, 2023, the Siemens Group generated revenue of €77.8 billion and net income of €8.5 billion. As of September 30, 2023, the company employed around 320,000 people worldwide. Further information is available on the Internet at www.siemens.com.
In fiscal 2023, which ended on September 30, 2023, the Siemens Group generated revenue of €77.8 billion and net income of €8.5 billion. As of September 30, 2023, the company employed around 320,000 people worldwide. Further information is available on the Internet at www.siemens.com.