Value Creation from a Shareholder ’ s Perspective : ‘ The Big Picture ’

For decades the German economy was bank centered and stakeholder oriented. Inherent to the system the capital market did not play a central role. Since the 1990s the German economy has undergone some fundamental changes. The old ‘Germany Inc.’ is in the progress of disintegration. With an increasing capital market orientation, the venture capital and IPO market almost gained ground automatically. Despite the failure of the Neuer Markt many young growth companies in Germany, France and UK showed impressive returns from having used particularly this new breed of investment market. Eurofins Scientific, which is listed in both Germany and France, ranks as number one in two of these three markets in terms of value creation for their shareholders over the last ten years. It achieved an annualised Total Shareholder Return (TSR) of 41.79% and an overall TSR of 3,200% as of 30/09/2007. It was only outperformed by Sechilienne Sidec, listed in France (52.09% TSR p.a.). In all three countries the top 3 value creators generated a TSR of over 30% on a compounded average growth rate basis over the 10 year period. Tables showing details of the ranking are given in section 4.