Porsche to join Germany's prestigious DAX index

BERLIN — Less than three months after a high-profile stock market debut, luxury carmaker Porsche is set to join Germany's blue-chip DAX index, edging out sportsgear maker Puma. 

Porsche will be promoted onto the Frankfurt index of Germany's 40 leading firms on December 19, stock exchange operator Deutsche Boerse said in a statement late Monday.

The firm's "fast entry" into the DAX showed that "our business model is robust and attractive to investors, even in a challenging environment", Porsche's chief finance officer Lutz Meschke said on Tuesday.

The maker of the iconic 911 sports car raced onto the Frankfurt stock exchange in late September with one of Europe's biggest listings in years.

Parent company Volkswagen (VW) raised around 9 billion euros ($9.4 billion) in the IPO, money that will help finance the group's costly shift to electric vehicles.

Porsche has quickly become an investor favourite, its share price climbing by almost 30 per cent from 82.50 euros initially to around 106 euros in early afternoon trading on Tuesday.

The company's current valuation, at just over 96 billion euros, now surpasses that of its parent VW at 83.5 billion euros, according to Bloomberg.

Porsche has also outpaced fellow German carmakers Mercedes-Benz, valued at 68.8 billion euros, and BMW at 56.5 billion.

Porsche's arrival in the top 40 will push Puma out of the DAX.

It will instead be listed on the MDAX index for medium-sized companies, Deutsche Boerse said.

Like its competitors, Puma is going a through turbulent time as high inflation and ongoing COVID 19-related restrictions in key market China weigh on demand. 

The company recently lost its CEO, Bjorn Gulden, to German rival Adidas.