Capital News
Deutsche Bank Board member Stephan Leithner who presently oversees Legal and regulatory affairs & Compliance, is being investigated for giving misleading evidence. Preliminary investigations were carried out as further information in the case against Ackerman, Fischer and other top-echelon officials of the bank came to light. The cross hairs are now also on Arne Wittig, former Chief Legal Officer, who in the meantime has moved to the same slot in Thyssen-Krupp, a further two staff members of the legal affairs department, and three lawyers with Hengeler Mueller and Gleiss Lutz who for years have been advising Germany’s biggest bank in this legal battle.
On January 29, a local court upheld the sentence it passed in August 2013, barring Siemens for five years from tendering for public works and entering into contracts with public bodies in Brazil. The motivation for this ruling is remote and dates back to manipulation in bids for post and telecommunication contracts between 1999 and 2004. Turnover generated from public bids in Brazil of late has been in the region of 100 to 200 Million Euros. The Munich-based concern is launching legal action.
Helma: Full coffers
Helma Eigenheimbau AG has succeeded in raising money on the capital market in two transactions. 310,000 new shares that were taken up by institutional investors at an issue price of 22 Euros, raised a gross revenue of 6.82 thousand million Euros. Then Helma increased a 25 million Euro company bond issued last September by an additional 10 million Euros. The actors in the second transaction, too, were exclusively institutional investors who paid the issue price of 102.00%. The bond matures in September 2018, its coupon is for 5,875% and it is traded on the Entry Standard list for company bonds. The company has earmarked the revenue for expanding its building activity in high concentration urban environments in German metropolises.
Franconofurt: Withdrawal from Entry Standard
Carrot and stick for the shareholders of the Franconofurt AG real estate agency-The success reaped last fiscal year has led the Board of Directors to promise a dividend of 0.20 Euros per share. Only eleven days earlier the company had declared its intention of withdrawing from the Entry Standard listing on the Frankfurt stock market. At present the company has not specified on which market (and under which rules) it intends to list its shares. Some 17% of the shares are possessed by a highly diversified number of shareholders.
Drägerwerk: Low earnings less dividend
In the wake of its fall in profits, Drägerwerk, producers of medical and safety technology is cutting the dividend to be paid out to its shareholders . Privileged shares will get 83 Eurocents, while a dividend of 77 Eurocents for normal shares will be proposed at the shareholders general meeting . Dividends last year were set at 92 and 86 Eurocents respectively. The profit for 2013 is posted as 114.6 million Euros, compared to 127 million Euros in 2012. The causes include the strength of the Euro and the extremely high expenses incurred in research and development.
Solarworld: the old versus the new
The shareholders of Solarworld AG can be grouped into two categories; the old shareholders who contributed towards putting the company back on its feet by taking a cut in capital on the one hand and, on the other, the younger ones who mainly obtained their shares by a bond exchange of the company deep in debt. The old shares are presently quoted at slightly less than 40 Euros and the younger ones could have been picked up at the end of March for just under 10 Euros. Considering that the two will be unified in June, some kind of price adjustment was expected. This no longer seems to be an option. The real reasons are still unclear, but many believe that it points to hedgefonds having banked on a drop in price and now realise that they will have to repurchase the shares at a higher price. What is certain is that the old shareholders will have to brace themselves for further losses, presuming, that is, that they haven’t dumped their shares beforehand.