Siemens Celebrates 125 Years as a Stock-listed Company

Today, Siemens is celebrating its 125th year on the stock exchange. On March 8, 1899, Siemens shares were traded for the first time on the floor of the Berlin Stock Exchange. As a result, Siemens is one of the oldest continuously listed companies in Germany’s stock-exchange history. One hundred and twenty-five years later, Siemens remains a leading technology company in the fields of industry, infrastructure, transport and healthcare and is one of the top 100 most valuable companies in the world.

“Our 125th year on the stock exchange underscores our strong ability to innovate, transformation capabilities and financial strength, which have made Siemens a leading global technology company and a relevant player on the capital market,” said Ralf P. Thomas, chief financial officer of Siemens AG. 

“Thanks to numerous innovations, Siemens has not only written industrial and technological history worldwide over the years, but also reinvented itself time and again. We’re optimally positioned strategically, technologically and economically to continue creating sustainable value in the future, too. Our customers, shareholders and people benefit from this strength.”

Debut on the Berlin Stock Exchange

Siemens was founded in Berlin as a small workshop for pointer telegraphs on Oct. 1, 1847. Just a few decades later, Siemens was already an internationally successful company. Company founder Werner von Siemens had always been opposed to the company transitioning into a stock-listed company. He wanted to keep the company completely in the family’s hands. His younger brother Carl von Siemens, however, was convinced that “a stock corporation … would be much more powerful than a private business. This is because it would have  numerous associés, who would all have a certain interest in protecting it and directing business to it.”  

To gain access to new financing options in the course of the electrical industry’s dynamic economic development from the 1890s onward in order to continue to seize the rapid growth opportunities, especially for major projects, the company opened up to the capital market: In 1897, the company changed its legal form to that of a stock-listed company called Siemens & Halske AG. In March 1899, the company made its stock-market debut.

It soon became evident how sought-after the new Siemens shares were when their subscription began on March 4, 1899. Subscription had to be immediately closed again because the share was very quickly oversubscribed. Siemens shares were then traded on the Berlin Stock Exchange for the first time beginning on March 8, 1899. On this first day of trading, the share also got off to a brilliant start. By the close of trading, its price had risen to 195% of its nominal value.

DAX heavyweight from the start

Another milestone in the stock market history of Siemens AG, which is the name under which the company has been conducting business since 1966, was its inclusion in the German stock index DAX, which was introduced in 1988. Since then, Siemens has continuously been listed in the DAX, which is the most important index for Germany as a financial center. Over the course of its transformation, the company repeatedly spun off business units that were not part of its core industrial business. Many of them were floated on the stock exchange as independent companies focused on their industry.

Today, in addition to Siemens, the DAX includes three other major names that are innovation leaders in their sectors and stem from Siemens. Together, they currently account for just under one sixth of the DAX index weighting: Siemens AG, Siemens Healthineers AG, Siemens Energy AG and Infineon Technologies AG.

Progressive internationalization of shareholder structure

During the company’s 125-year stock-exchange history, the shareholder and ownership structure has become increasingly internationalized. As a company that operates globally in growth industries, the global capital market recognizes Siemens as an attractive investment opportunity. Today, shareholders from Germany hold around 27% of the outstanding shares.

Profit sharing in practice and employee share program

Siemens was also a pioneer in enabling the people working at the company to participate in its development. Back in 1858, people working at Siemens were given a share in the company’s profits for the first time. Since then, enabling the company’s people to participate in its development has been a central component of Siemens’ company culture. This principle has since been embedded in the company’s strategic environmental, sustainability and governance framework DEGREE.

In 1969, people working at Siemens AG in Germany had the opportunity to buy company shares at a preferential price for the first time. In Germany, Siemens’ employee share program has developed to become an integral part of the way it has focused on its people over the past 50 years. Siemens’ global share-plan program for its people, which was introduced in 2008 and is currently offered to more than 240,000 eligible people who work at Siemens in 62 countries, is one of the world’s largest employee share programs.  

In total, more than 170,000 of the approximately 320,000 people working at Siemens worldwide currently own company shares. In this way, they are shaping a special culture of owning a stake in the company. People working at Siemens hold around 3% of Siemens shares. As a result, they form a large and important shareholder group alongside the Siemens family, which holds around 6% of the shares.

Strong focus on shareholder returns

As a capital market-oriented company, Siemens endeavors to offer its shareholders an attractive return. In the last ten fiscal years alone, Siemens has paid out dividends totaling over €30 billion. In terms of total shareholder return–which is share price performance, including reinvested dividends–investors more than doubled their invested capital during this period. In the same period, the DAX benchmark index recorded an increase of around 79%.

Recently, too, Siemens has continued writing its success story on the stock market. Since the start of fiscal 2024, its share price has risen by another 34% and reached an all-time high of €184.84 on March 1, 2024.

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