German SMID: The unpriced Zeitenwende. Launching sector coverage

Research evidence excerpt

German SMID: The unpriced Zeitenwende. Launching sector coverage

22 July 2026

Midcap Research

German SMID: The unpriced Zeitenwende. Launching sector

coverageMIDCAPS

We are launching dedicated German MidCaps coverage, focusing initially on the Industrials Pal Skirta

+49 69 717 4861 space. Since 2021, German MidCaps have been the wrong place to be: domestic-demand

pal.skirta@bernsteinsg.com exposure, a stagnant economy, and a severe de-rating as capital moved up the market-

cap spectrum. We think that regime is ending. Germany's old growth model, built on

cheap Russian energy, Chinese demand and outsourced security, is being replaced by a

constitutionally protected, decade-long domestic investment program. We think the cleanest

exposure to that shift does not sit in Shanghai or Wolfsburg. It sits with the MidCaps suppliers

that build, wire, maintain and defend Germany. The question is no longer whether Germany

rebuilds, but who gets paid when it does.

The thesis in three sentences. Germany is committing tens of billions a year of additional

infrastructure investment, plus a defense budget rising from €108bn (2026) toward €180bn

by 2030 - and the demand is already contracted, not merely announced. In our view, the

market is pricing the delivery lag - cash out the door, the laggiest signal - rather than the delivery

itself, and has round-tripped the entire fiscal re-rating even as the spending arrived. We

think this combination of record-low MidCaps valuations and contractually secured domestic

demand creates the best stock-picking environment in German MidCaps in a decade.

The fiscal turn is committed, not just announced. €27.8bn of SVIK (Germany's Special

Infrastructure and Climate Neutrality Fund) obligations were locked by end-2025, and the