Enlarge image
Housing group Deutsche Wohnen: soon out of the Dax
Photo: Christoph Soeder / dpa
The Vonovia housing group continues to expand its power at Deutsche Wohnen.
After the deadline, Germany's largest apartment rental company now holds 87.6 percent of the voting rights in the previous number two in the industry.
This was announced by a Vonovia spokesman.
This means that Deutsche Wohnen is about to leave the leading index Dax.
The company's free float is too small to be included in the index of the 40 most important listed companies in Germany.
In such cases, Deutsche Börse usually responds within a few days.
A possible successor is already ready: During the index reform in September, the Hamburg consumer goods manufacturer Beiersdorf narrowly missed the re-entry into the Dax.
He could now move up for Deutsche Wohnen.
Two real estate giants
Vonovia has so far spent around 17 billion euros on Deutsche Wohnen shares and, following the mega-merger of the two Dax groups, is managing 568,000 apartments that are currently worth more than 80 billion euros.
The US asset manager Blackrock and the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund are among the largest shareholders, each holding ten percent.
"We can now join forces to tackle the major societal and social challenges in the housing market," said CEO Rolf Buch.
"We stand by our responsibility to work together with politicians on specific solutions for affordable and climate-friendly living space."
Buch had to tremble for a long time about the takeover, in an earlier attempt the industry giant even missed the majority it was aiming for.
It was only when the Bochum group waived all conditions that it removed the basis of all speculations about failure.
Deutsche Wohnen shareholders should receive their money by November 2nd, 53 euros per share.
Rising rents in the capital
Deutsche Wohnen is known, among other things, as one of the largest landlords in Berlin, where Deutsche Wohnen owns around 110,000 apartments. Vonovia also has a dominant presence in the capital, with around 40,000 apartments. Together, that's around nine percent of all rental apartments in the city. Critics accuse the two companies of contributing to the sharp rise in rents. A Berlin referendum, "Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co.", therefore recently called for the expropriation of the two housing groups.
In order to appease the critics, Vonovia boss Buch had announced, among other things, a limit on the regular rent increases in the capital until 2026.
In addition, Deutsche Wohnen and Vonovia sold 14,750 apartments in Berlin for almost 2.5 billion euros to three state-owned companies.
jlk / Reuters / dpa
