Deutsche Wohnen flirts with DAX status

It's looking increasingly likely that the listed residential property specialist Deutsche Wohnen will be promoted to the big leagues of Germany's stock markets, the DAX index, which tracks the share prices of the country's best 30 shares. The speculation comes ahead of a shareholders meeting scheduled for Friday that will be taking place online, rather than in Frankfurt, where the former Deutsche Bank subsidiary was headquartered until three years. ago. But tenant respresentatives of the company, which owns 160,000 apartments around the country, fear that the company's promotion to the DAX will result in cost-cutting by the company as it promotes itself to profit-hungry foreign investors. Company officials have consistently rejected these types of charges and they've been stung by the decision earlier this year to freeze rents, even though the company squeezed 2.3 percent more out of its portfolio in the German capital. Of greater importance could prove to be rumors that another DAX member, Vonovia, was contemplating a bid for control of Deutsche Wohnen became strong that the company was forced to make an evasive, unconvincing denial: "Acquisitions are an integral part of our strategy, and we constantly monitor and analyze potential opportunities as a matter of course," wrote Vonovia. "Such a transaction, however, would only be conceivable in case fundamental issues were resolved and there was political support for such a transaction in Berlin, where the local government is currently making every effort to successfully combat the COVID-19 pandemic."