Hochtief was admitted to the DAX on Monday, making it one of the 40 leading publicly traded companies in Germany. Essen-based group replaces Porsche SE, the major Volkswagen shareholder, which will now be listed in the MDax for mid-cap stocks. For funds that physically replicate indices, the change has direct consequences: they must rebalance their portfolios accordingly.
Hochtief’s rise to the DAX was announced in early June and came as no surprise after a strong stock performance. The construction group’s share price has more than tripled within a year, and its market capitalization stands at around 38 billion euros. However, only about 20 percent of the shares are in free float; the remaining 80 percent are held by Spanish construction and infrastructure giant ACS, which has controlled Hochtief since mid-2011.
Hochtief is benefiting massively from the construction of data centers for artificial intelligence, especially in the United States. Multibillion-dollar infrastructure programs and rising defense spending in many countries are also driving demand. The company builds skyscrapers, hospitals, roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, and energy transition facilities such as solar parks worldwide. The largest share of the business comes from Turner (USA) and Cimic (Australia). At the end of 2025, the group employed around 61,500 people, of whom nearly 3,700 were in Germany. The CEO is Juan Santamaría Cases, who is also CEO of ACS.
Source: www.spiegel.de
