Lufthansa, Continental, Commerzbank, MLP: German Equity Preview

By Gabi Thesing and Stefanie Haxel

Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) -- The following companies may have unusual price changes in Germany. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are from the previous close.

DAX Index futures expiring in September fell 0.1 percent to 6,357.5 at 8:06 a.m. in Frankfurt. The DAX index rose 1.7 percent to 6,342.42 on Aug. 22.

Adidas AG (ADS GY): The world's second-largest sporting- goods maker said the Olympic Games in Beijing boosted its first- half sales in China by 60 percent. The shares gained 65 cents, or 1.7 percent, to 39.80 euros.

Beiersdorf AG (BEI GY): Dieter Steinmeyer, head of Beiersdorf's Tesa unit, favors a split from the cosmetics maker, Financial Times Deutschland said, citing an interview. The shares rose 31 cents, or 0.8 percent, to 38.97 euros.

Commerzbank AG (CBK GY): Germany's second-largest bank by assets may be close to deciding whether to buy Allianz SE's Dresdner Bank AG for 9 billion euros ($13.3 billion), the Sunday Times reported.

Separately, Allianz may delay or abandon plans to break up its Dresdner Bank unit, indicating a deal may be near to sell it as a whole, the Financial Times said, citing unidentified people close to the insurer. The shares increased 89.5 cents, or 4.6 percent, to 20.51 euros.

Continental AG (CON GY): The world's second-largest maker of car parts appointed technology chief Karl-Thomas Neumann as chief executive officer to succeed Manfred Wennemer, who resigned after Schaeffler Group agreed to buy the company to create Europe's largest car-parts manufacturer. The shares advanced 10 cents, or 0.1 percent, to 73.90 euros.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA GY): German entrepreneur Albrecht Knauf wants to sell his majority stake in Eurowings to co-owner Lufthansa, Spiegel reported, without saying where it got the information. The shares gained 42 cents, or 3 percent, to 14.44 euros.

Deutsche Bank AG (DBK GY): Charles Schwab Corp. call option trading jumped to the highest in more than a year on late Aug. 22 amid speculation the largest U.S. online brokerage may be bought by Deutsche Bank. Shares of Germany's largest bank rallied 1.645 euros, or 2.9 percent, to 57.605.

Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE GY): The T-Mobile wireless unit of Europe's largest phone company has sold 120,000 new iPhones since they were introduced a month ago, Focus said, citing an interview with Chief Executive Officer Hamid Akhavan. Telekom shares added 20.5 cents, or 1.9 percent, to 10.955 euros.

MLP AG (MLP GY): Swiss Life Holding AG, Switzerland's largest life insurer, won't sell its stake in the financial- services broker, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported, citing an unidentified company spokesman. The shares rose 42 cents, or 3.2 percent, to 13.77 euros.

SAP AG (SAP GY): Chief Executive Officer Henning Kagermann's forthcoming departure signals that the world's largest maker of business-management software has shifted to focusing on profit and away from concentrating on developing business software, the New York Times reported. SAP shares advanced 30 cents, or 0.8 percent, to 37.74 euros.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gabi Thesing in Frankfurt at gthesing@bloomberg.net; Stefanie Haxel in Frankfurt at shaxel@bloomberg.net