HeidelbergCement’s rights issue and share placing pave the way to a new era for the world’s fourth-largest cement company. After its €8.7bn bank refinancing in the summer, further repairs to its overstretched balance sheet through a capital raising seemed inevitable. What was not expected was that the controlling Merckle family, also deeply indebted, would at the same time dramatically reduce its holding through a share placing of the same size. The result is more than €4bn of shares coming on to the market at once.

That will transform the ownership structure. The Merckle family’s stake will fall from 72.4 per cent to 15-25 per cent, depending on how certain intricacies of the placing pan out. What was once a closely held, family-controlled group becomes a public investor-based one with a majority free float. Dax membership probably follows and with it the requirement for index funds to hold the stock.