Vonovia SE on the Capital Market

• Dividend Increased for the Eighth Time Running
• Successful Takeover of Deutsche Wohnen SE Including Capital Increase
• Renewed Improvement in Key ESG Ratings such as Sustainalytics, CDP or S&P Global

Developments on the International Capital Markets

The global coronavirus pandemic has been having an impact on the international capital markets since February 2020, and this continued in 2021. While the DAX 40 was still up by more than 13% after the first six months of 2021, the positive trend slowed down as the end of the year approached. Even though the DAX 40 still managed to reach an annual high in excess of 16,000 points, it closed the year at 15,885 points, which equates to an increase of only 1.7% in the second half of the year. We believe that there are three main reasons behind the damper on this positive trend: the emergence of the more contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus, with fears of more rigorous restrictions or renewed lockdowns; the fact that international production was hindered by global supply bottlenecks and the associated fears of weaker economic output; and the further increase in inflation, which is likely to have put the brakes on developments on the stock markets due to fears that the trend would result in rising interest rates.