FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Two takeover candidates, Morphosys and Vitesco, are likely to swap places in the MDax and SDax for the index review in March. Beyond that, no changes are expected. Only one change is also expected in the TecDax, according to index expert Luca Thorißen from the investment bank Stifel.

This Tuesday (March 5), Deutsche Borse will regularly review the indices of the Dax family, consisting of the leading index Dax, the MDax for medium-sized companies, the SDax for smaller companies and the technology stock index TecDax. Any changes will be announced in the evening after the US stock market closes and will come into effect on Monday, March 18.

According to Thorißen, the electric drive specialist Vitesco is likely to be relegated from the MDax to the SDax in March. The reason for this is that the proportion of freely tradable shares has fallen significantly as a result of the takeover by major shareholder Schaeffler. As of January, the automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler, together with the Schaeffler family holding company, owns just under 89 percent of the shares. According to Thorißen, Morphosys, a researcher into active pharmaceutical ingredients, is a candidate for promotion, as its shares have recently received a huge boost.

However, this boost in Morphosys shares is also due to takeover plans. As has been known since February 5, the Swiss pharmaceutical group Novartis wants to buy the biotech company from Planegg near Munich and is particularly interested in the cancer drug pelabresib. It is expected that this could become a blockbuster. Novartis is offering 68 euros per share or a total of 2.7 billion euros. Morphosys does not anticipate any competition law difficulties, so that the takeover could possibly be completed in the first half of the year. As a result, however, Morphosys could quickly drop out of the MDax.

In the TecDax, the inclusion of Süss MicroTec is also in the offing, while the biofuel manufacturer Verbio would have to leave the technology index.

Such changes are particularly important for funds that replicate indices in real terms (physically replicating ETFs). They then have to rebalance accordingly, which can have an impact on share prices./ck/jha/