It has been a bit of a shock for the Hamburg-based biotech company Evotec: At the beginning of May, Deutsche Börse decided for the first time to immediately remove an M-Dax stock from all selection indices because the new set of rules and regulations after the Wirecard scandal wants it that way. Evotec did not submit its audited annual report in time for the end of April. There were no talks between Evotec and the stock exchange. Werner Lanthaler, Evotec's long-standing Chief Executive Officer, was very disappointed with the decision, saying that his company has been a client of the stock exchange since 2001 and that it has been earning money from Evotec shares "every day" since then.

Daniel Mohr

Editor in business.

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Lanthaler would have considered an exception justified, as his company was the victim of a cyber attack at the beginning of April and thus crime from outside, which is a fundamentally different situation than at Wirecard with suspected crime from within. Deutsche Börse, however, referred to its rules and regulations and the consistent application of them.

For index investors, the stock market's decision was unfavorable. Evotec's share price plummeted by 10 percent following the stock exchange announcement, which corresponds to a market capitalization of more than EUR 300 million. Although the share price recovered in the course of the day, when Lanthaler was immediately able to describe his view of things on faz.net and in the F.A.Z., on the next and for the time being last trading day in the M-Dax and Tec-Dax, it fell again by 4 percent to EUR 16.32 per share, before SMA-Solar took its place in the M-Dax for Evotec.

Soon after leaving the index world, Evotec's share price jumped by 13 percent. A cooperation with Sandoz, which belongs to the Novartis Group, fired the imagination of investors. On the fourth trading day after the expulsion, Evotec then submitted the missing documents as announced and confirmed previous statements that the cyber attack had prevented the timely review of the annual report, but otherwise did not cause any major damage to the company with its research on drugs and active ingredients.

On the stock exchange, the reaffirmation of the annual targets was praised with a further price increase of 5 percent. If the stock exchange is expected to announce Evotec's return to the M-Dax and Tec-Dax on 19 June tonight, the share price has risen by 30 per cent since the withdrawal. Meanwhile, M-Dax successor SMA Solar has lost 107 percent from its high of 12 euros at the time of the index's entry to this Monday. The change has thus cost the index itself around 0.8 percent in performance, but may have strengthened the reputation that the stock exchange hopes for from a consistent interpretation of its rules.

SMA Solar will remain with the M-Dax for the time being. According to calculations by the investment bank Stifel Europe, the shares of Adtran will have to descend. The second climber to the M-Dax is likely to be Software AG, although the company is about to be taken over by financial investors. The announcement has caused the share price to rise strongly enough for an M-Dax return, but the takeover has not yet been completed. The real estate value Aroundtown would have to be relegated to the S-Dax for this. Krones could also just make it to the top, but United Internet would have to give way. For Evotec, Suse would have to give way in the Tec-Dax. Kontron replaced Evotec there at the beginning of May, but has since lost a slight share price. There is no change in the Dax. Lufthansa has been considered eligible for promotion for a few weeks now, as the loss in 2021 was last "adjusted" into a profit. However, the market capitalization is not yet quite sufficient to enter the index according to the "Fast Entry" rule. The weakest stock there at the moment is Zalando.