Mercedes 2012 Annual Report Download - page 29

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1 | To Our Shareholders | Daimler Shares
Daimler share price gains significantly over the year.
Automotive stocks made a very strong start to the year 2012.
Our shares profited at the beginning of the year from the
anticipated continuation of the positive unit-sales trend from
record year 2011, from the prospects of strong business
in China and from the dividend increase to €2.20 per share.
Daimler’s share price peaked for the year at €48.45 on
March 15. After that, the aforementioned weakening of stock
markets had a disproportionately strong impact on prices
of cyclical stocks such as Daimler’s, so our shares fell signifi-
cantly until late June. During this phase, our share price reached
its low for the year of €33.40 on June 26. In the following
six weeks, however, Daimler’s share price increased again
significantly and reached a new interim high of €42.17 on
August 21, before fears of weakening automobile markets along
with our reduced earnings guidance for 2012 and lower
expected earnings for 2013 led to gradual price falls. In the
last two trading months of the year, our share price was
very volatile but profited from the general upward movement
of stock markets and closed the year on December 28 at
€41.32. Daimler’s market capitalization at the end of the year
was €44.1 billion.
Daimler’s share price thus gained 22% over the full year, which
is a weaker performance than the Dow Jones STOXX Auto
Index (+36%) and the DAX (+29%). Including the distribution
of a dividend of €2.20 per share, our shareholders had an
increase in value of 28%.
In the first several weeks of the year 2013, Daimler’s share
price again climbed significantly.
Dividend of €2.20.

1.02 The Board of Management and
the Supervisory Board will propose to the Annual Shareholders’
Meeting to be held on April 10, 2013 that a dividend of €2.20
per share be distributed (prior year: €2.20). The total dividend
payout will thus amount to €2,349 million (prior year: €2,346
million).
Broad shareholder structure.

1.07 Daimler continues
to have a broad shareholder base of approximately 1.0 million
shareholders. The number of shareholders remained stable
compared with 2011. The Kuwait Investment Authority gradually
increased its shareholding in Daimler AG from 6.9% to 7.6%
during the year under review. The Renault-Nissan Alliance
continues to hold 3.1% of Daimler’s stock.
Aabar Investments PJS, Abu Dhabi, (Aabar) informed us
in October 2012 that its shareholding had fallen below
the 3% notification threshold as stipulated by the German
Securities Trading Act (WpHG).
BlackRock Inc., New York, which informed us in August 2011
that it held 5.7% of our shares, is still above the 5% notification
threshold as stipulated by the German Securities Trading Act
(WpHG).
During the year 2012, we received several voting-rights notifi-
cations from subsidiaries of BlackRock Inc., each of whose
Daimler shares are part of the total investment of BlackRock
Inc. According to the most recent notifications in May 2012,
the voting rights held by BlackRock Holdco 2 Inc. and by Black-
Rock Financial Management Inc. exceeded the notification
threshold of 5% on May 4, 2012 and amounted to 5.3% as of
that date. The Daimler shares held by BlackRock International
Holdings Inc. and BR Jersey International Holdings L.P.
exceeded the notification threshold of 3% on May 4, 2012
and amounted to 3.30%, and the Daimler shares held by
BlackRock Group Limited exceeded the notification threshold
of 3% and amounted to 3.13% as of that date.
12/31/12
Dow Jones STOXX Auto Index
DAX
Daimler AG
160
150
140
130
120
110
100
90
80
2/29/124/30/12 6/30/128/31/12 10/31/12
Share price index
12/31/11
1.04
25
30
35
40
45
12/1211/1210/129/128/127/126/125/124/123/122/121/12
50
55
60
Daimler share price (high/low), 2012
In euros
1.03