This is how investors react to Vonovia’s dividend cut

Bochum Just a few days ago, Simon Stippig was sure. The Bank Warburg analyst argued that he considered it rather unlikely that the market would debate a dividend cut by the Dax group Vonovia. It wouldn’t exactly increase confidence in the business model.

But the big shock when things turned out differently did not materialize. On Friday, investors and dealers reacted only a little disappointed to the drastic dividend cut announced the previous evening by Germany’s largest housing group. The shares of the Dax group slipped more than two percent into the red at times on Friday after the papers had already lost significantly the day before. Later in the morning it was again slightly up.

Vonovia surprisingly announced on Thursday evening that it intends to significantly reduce the dividend for the past year despite increasing profits. Instead of a distribution of EUR 1.66 per share, CEO Rolf Buch will only propose a dividend of EUR 0.85 per share at the general meeting.