Investors Value Mercedes-Benz at Half of BMW

12 years ago - 19 December 2012, Autoblog

Bloomberg reports investors have valued Mercedes-Benz at approximately half of what BMW is worth. While BMW has seen its market capitalization jump to 45 billion euros, Daimler currently sits at around 42.2 billion euros.

But that number falls to just 25 billion once Daimler's truck business is subtracted from the total. This comes after Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche vowed to retake the luxury sales crown from BMW by doubling sales to nearly 2.6 million vehicles by 2020. Mercedes-Benz lost that title back in 2005, and two years ago, the company had a market capitalization of nearly 15.5 billion euros more than BMW.

But that was then. Analysts say the market has lost confidence in the leadership at Daimler and believe the company won't be able to gain significant ground on BMW. While Mercedes-Benz has had to postpone profit goals in the face of slack earnings, BMW continues to push forward with a new facility in Brazil, a range of electric vehicles and stout sales. Since 2006, Mercedes-Benz share prices have fallen off by around 10 percent while BMW stock has jumped in value by 89 percent.