Mercedes 2008 Annual Report Download - page 42

38
Dividend reduced to €0.60 per share. In view of the effects
of the global economic crisis on Daimler’s earnings situation,
the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board suggest
a smaller dividend distribution this year. We will propose to the
Annual Meeting to be held on April 8, 2009 that the dividend
for the year 2008 be reduced from €2.00 per share to €0.60 per
share. Based on the number of shares entitled to a dividend
as of December 31, 2008, this represents a dividend payout of
€556 million (prior year: €1,928 million). The main reasons
for the dividend adjustment are the level of earnings in the year
2008 and the difficulty in estimating the further development
of the world economy and the automotive markets.
Broad shareholder base. Daimler continues to have a broad share-
holder base of approximately 1.3 million shareholders. At the end
of 2008, the largest shareholder was the Kuwait Investment Author-
ity with a holding of 7.6%. In addition, on February 20, 2008,
Capital Research and Management Company informed us that it
had exceeded the statutory disclosure threshold of 3% of voting
rights and now held 3.03% of our shares.
In total, institutional investors held 69% of our equity and private
investors held 24%. Approximately 76% of our stock was in the
hands of European investors and approximately 16% was held by
US investors. After falling for several years, the number of private
investors entered in Daimler’s share register increased once again
in 2008. At the end of the year, we had 37.1 million treasury
shares (own shares bought back), equivalent to 3.8% of the out-
standing shares.
The weighting of Daimler shares in major
indices decreased during the year due to the share-price devel-
opment. In the German DAX 30 index, our stock was ranked
in 9th position with a weighting of 5.38% (end of 2007: 8.16%).
In the Dow Jones Euro STOXX 50 index, Daimler shares were
represented with a weighting of 1.88% (end of 2007: 2.80%).
The global trading volume in Daimler stock amounted to 2.9 billion
shares in 2008 (2007: 2.7 billion), of which 2,791 million were
traded at German stock exchanges (2007: 2,511 million) and 120
million were traded on the New York Stock Exchange (2007:
154 million).
2,768
964.6
37.1
24.8
1.3
5.38%
1.88%
A-
A3
A-
A (low)
+0
-5
.
-63
+8
08/07
2,766
1,013.9
0
67.4
1.2
8.16%
2.80%
BBB+
A3
A-
A (low)
End of 2007End of 2008
Statistics
1.41
1.40
0.60
33.93
26.70
64.68
19.35
% change
-63
-63
-70
-10
-60
-17
-58
08/07
3.83
3.80
2.00
37.71
66.50
77.76
46.30
2007
2008
Statistics per share
% change
Net profit (basic)
Net profit (diluted)
Dividend
Shareholders’ equity (Dec. 31)
Xetra share price: year-end1
Xetra high1
Xetra low1
1 Closing prices
Capital stock (in millions of €)
Number of shares (in millions)
thereof treasury shares
Market capitalization
(in billions of €)
Number of shareholders
(in millions)
Weightings in share indices
DAX 30
Dow Jones Euro STOXX 50
Long-term credit ratings
Standard & Poor’s
Moody’s
Fitch
DBRS
Amounts in €