Arcandor, Continental, DIC, Premiere: German Equity Preview

By Patrick Donahue and Julie Cruz

Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The following is a list of companies whose shares may have unusual price changes in Germany. Stock symbols are in parentheses, and share prices are from the previous close.

DAX Index futures expiring in September declined 0.5 percent to 5,207.00 as of 8:16 a.m. in Frankfurt. The DAX climbed 0.9 percent to 5,250.74 yesterday.

Arcandor AG (ARO GY): The insolvent retailer’s stake in Thomas Cook Group Plc will probably be offered to institutional investors rather than sold as a block to another travel company, three people with knowledge of the situation said. The shares gained 11 percent to 31 cents.

Continental AG (CON GY): Schaeffler Group will transfer 5 billion euros ($7.1 billion) of its 12 billion euros of debt into a holding company to overcome the last hurdle to its takeover of auto-parts manufacturer Continental, Die Welt reported. The shares rallied 17 percent to 26.10.

DIC Asset AG (DAZ GY): The commercial property company reported an increase in second-quarter profit to 3.5 million euros from 2.6 million euros in the first quarter. Rental income for the first half declined to 67.3 million euros from 67.7 million euros in the year-earlier period. The shares added 0.2 percent to 5.66 euros.

Sky Deutschland AG (PRE GY): Germany’s biggest pay- television company, previously known as Premiere AG, was cut to “neutral” from “outperform” at Credit Suisse Group AG. The shares dropped 2 percent to 3.49 euros.

Volkswagen AG (VOW GY): Chief Financial Officer Hans Dieter Poetsch said the purchase of Porsche SE should pay off in four to five years, Handelsblatt reported, citing comments by the CFO at a media event in Stuttgart, Germany. Forecasted savings from the takeover of 700 million euros are “very realistic” and low, Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn told journalists, according to the newspaper. The shares slipped 1.2 percent to 169.71 euros.

Wirecard AG (WDI GY): The German vendor of online payment software said second-quarter earnings before interest and taxes gained 12 percent to 13.7 million euros. The shares added 2.7 percent to 7.29 euros.

To contact the reporters on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net; Julie Cruz in Frankfurt at jcruz6@bloomberg.net.