FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Commerzbank considers itself ready for a return to the Dax thanks to black figures last year. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) reached just under 3.4 billion euros in 2022, the institution, which is currently listed on the MDax, announced on Monday based on preliminary figures. "We have decided to publish Commerzbank's Ebitda for 2022 already now in order to enable Deutsche Börse companies to consider us as a successor candidate for Linde in the Dax 40 with now two loss-free years in a row," explained CFO Bettina Orlopp.

The news was well received on the stock market. Shortly after the start of trading, the Commerzbank share gained almost three percent at times. A few minutes later, it was still up 0.4 percent, making it the second-strongest stock in the MDax, the index of mid-sized stocks. It has gained around 15 percent since the start of the year.

The Linde Group is withdrawing from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The previously most valuable Dax group will therefore be removed from Germany's leading index on February 27. Information on the successor is to be announced on the evening of February 17. One prerequisite: the company must have achieved positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in at least the two preceding fiscal years.

According to the preliminary figures, Commerzbank has succeeded in doing so. In 2020, however, it was in the red as a result of expensive group restructuring, so that it would not have met the requirements for inclusion in the Dax on the basis of 2020 and 2021. Before taxes, the financial institution also reported a profit of a good two billion euros in 2022. Commerzbank plans to publish its detailed figures on February 16 - based on the preliminary and unaudited annual financial statements.

Commerzbank had been relegated from the Dax to the MDax in the fall of 2018 due to its sharply trimmed stock market value. The then CEO Martin Zielke had commented on this emphatically calmly: "Nothing at all changes for the importance of the bank for the German economy." However, membership of the Dax is also a question of prestige: for international investors in particular, the German share index is the flagship of the German economy.

The Frankfurt-based financial institution's place in Germany's top stock market league was taken in 2018 by, of all things, payment service provider Wirecard, which was later kicked out of the Dax again due to an accounting scandal. As a result, the stock exchange tightened the rules for membership in Germany's leading index: only profitable companies will be newly included in the index, which has been expanded to 40 stocks since September 2021. Bankrupt candidates and companies that fail to meet their obligation to publish interim reports on time are no longer to be included in the Dax.

If Commerzbank were to be reinstated in the Dax, the arms manufacturer and automotive supplier Rheinmetall would probably lose out. Index experts had seen the latter as the favorite, mainly because there had not yet been any key earnings figures from Commerzbank for 2022./stw/ben/stk