Controllers of large listed companies have received higher compensation in the last two years. The top earner comes from the supervisory board of an automaker. According to a study, supervisory boards of listed companies in Germany earned significantly more in the past year than in the previous year. The compensation of the chief controllers of the 40 DAX companies has increased by 7.7% to an average of approximately 393,000 euros annually, as indicated by an analysis by the German Association for the Protection of Securities (DSW).
The remaining members of the supervisory board earned an average of around 117,000 euros, an increase of 4.4 percent. The highest earner among the supervisors in the DAX was Norbert Reithofer of BMW with a remuneration of 610,000 euros. Jim Hagemann Snabe at Siemens (602,000 euros) and Kurt Bock at BASF (550,000 euros) follow in second and third place, respectively. The lowest remuneration among the chairmen of the supervisory boards in the top German stock exchange league was received by Wolfgang Büchele of Merck with 112,000 euros.
According to DSW CEO Marc Tüngler, companies are facing increasing challenges due to new European regulations and global crises. This also makes the work of supervisory boards more demanding. In the other indices of the DAX family, the total compensation of the supervisory board members also increased. In the MDAX, the average salaries of the chairpersons were 212,000 euros (plus 4.0 percent) and of the members were 68,000 euros (plus 2.7 percent), which were lower than in the DAX. In the SDAX with 70 smaller companies, chairpersons earned an average of 134,000 euros (plus 6.7 percent) and members earned about 50,000 euros (plus 3.9 percent).
Meanwhile, Deutsche Börse has learned from the Linde fiasco and adjusted its DAX rules. In the spring, the so-called cap limit, which regulates the maximum weight of a company in the index, will be raised from ten to fifteen percent, as announced by the stock exchange operator on Wednesday evening. A majority of market participants had expressed support for this step. The cap limit is adjusted every three months during the index review in order to not adversely affect the price development of the benchmark index and the affected company. However, the previous limit of ten percent at Deutsche Börse was criticized, as it lacked comparability with international standards.
The new limit is set to take effect from March 18, 2024, and will align the Dax family with international standards. According to the justification provided by the German Stock Exchange, the previous cap limit led to 38 adjustments in the past ten years among four companies in the Dax. However, no company reached the 15 percent threshold during this period. Currently, SAP is the most valuable publicly traded company in Germany, with a market capitalization of 173 billion euros. The stock has seen an increase of almost 50 percent this year and is currently the only one in the Dax affected by the ten percent cap limit. With the decision of the German Stock Exchange, the positive trend of the stock could continue.
