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Gerhard Schick has agreed to resume the Chair of Bechtle’s Supervisory Board.. In a communiqué, the Tec Dax IT company announced that Klaus Winkler, a Supervisory Board member since 1999 and its present Chairman, was quitting for “personal family reasons. Now, the founder of Germany’s second largest IT company should head the Board, at least until the general meeting scheduled for 5 June 2014.
In a surprise move, Jürgen Buchsteiner is leaving Brenntag when his contract expires at year end. Personal reasons are cited as being behind the decision of the 55-year old who has headed the chemical company’s Asia-Pacific M&A activities since 2012. During his tenure as CFO, his contribution to the company’s stock exchange flotation was fundamental to its success.
Commerzbank Management Board members Jochen Klösges and Ulrich Sieber are leaving at the end of the year. In July 2014, Klösges will take up the post of CEO at E.R. Capital Holding. On 6 November last, the Supervisory Board decreed that Sieber, head of human resources, had to go, a decision in which Klas-Peter Müller’s double vote was probably crucial. In mid October opposition to a decision of his, above all by the workers’ representatives, led to it being overturned by the Supervisory Board. The terms of his severance will probably be set by a tribunal.
On 27 November, 50 year-old Siegfried Russwurm resigned as Chair of the OSRAM Licht Supervisory Board. Russwurm, who is a member of the Siemens Board of Directors was replaced by Peter Bayer whose place in turn was taken by Roland Busch, who, jointly with Michael Knuth, was also appointed vice chair of the Supervisory Board. According to the latest information, Siemens still has a direct 17% stake in its former group subsidiary.
After years as Chair of RATIONAL’s Board of Directors, Günter Blaschke has passed the helm over to Peter Stadelmann., presently head of human resources. Stadelmann’s tenure will commence on 1 January 2014. According to a company statement, Blaschke will remain with the company in an advisory capacity. Rational’s business is in systems for distributing hot meals.
Lothar Adler has thrown the towel. After the fracas over the amount of his fee, the Chairman of the Central Works Council of Siemens AG has agreed not to proceed with the controversial renewal of his contract. Adler’s original intention had been to continue working for a few months after his 65th birthday but Siemens has confirmed that on reaching the age limit, he will leave the group at the end of May 2014. His successor will be appointed after next year’s company board elections.
Peter Y. Solmssen is leaving Siemens. The head of the group’s legal affairs has allegedly clarified his severance terms. Solmssen was considered one of the most trusted lieutenants of Peter Löscher, who resigned at the end of last July. Speculation about the American’s future had been rife for months; he is the third and last executive summoned from abroad by Cromme to leave the Munich-based group.
Talanx, the third largest insurance conglomerate in Germany, is cutting back on the number of its Board of Directors from seven to six. Thomas Noth is voluntarily quitting the Board of Directors at the expiry date of his contract on 31 May 2014. The success in consolidating computer technology in Germany has made the post of chief information officer (CIO) redundant.
Fannie Mae commenced legal proceedings in New York on 31 October against Deutsche Bank and other eight banks, as well as against all the member banks of the British Bankers Association, suing for approximately 800 million dollars, some 585 million Euros. The claim is that the defendants caused damages of this amount to the American national real estate lending company by manipulating the international base interest rate. Fannie Mae claims that the manipulation of the LIBOR (London Interbank Offered) Rate alone caused more than 300 million dollars worth of damage. A large number of Fannie Mae’s credits were or are linked to LIBOR.
The major shareholder in Rhön-Klinikum, B. Braun, was in court in Schweinfurt defending his sale of 43 clinics to Helios. The aim of the proceedings is to ascertain whether the sales contract of the stock was null or whether it only becomes executable if approved by a 90% majority of shareholders and is in conformity with the rules governing market competition as the medical technology producer stated in Melsungen on 22 November. At the same time, the family company holding rose from 11 to 14 percent to become the largest single shareholder including the company’s founder Eugen Münch, and planning a 25% increase, application for which has been lodged with the anti-trust authority.
By means of a share repurchase, FUCHS PETROLUB has paid the surplus liquidity back to the shareholders while enhancing the sale potential of the stock by issuing stock dividends. According to a company statement issued on 26 November, a million (and no more) ordinary and preferential shares must be purchased for an overall amount of 100 million Euros, namely approximately 2.4 percent of the lubricant manufacturer’s share capital worth. Fuchs’s intention is to withdraw the shares, an initiative that commenced on 27 November and is expected to terminate on 31 March 2015. Furthermore an increase in company shareholder’s equity is expected to be proposed at the next general meeting scheduled for 7 May 2014. This increase in capital is linked to the issue of stock dividends at a ratio of 1:1 According to Fuchs, these measures are evidence of belief in positive future growth.
The presentation of Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft’s intermediate report, was punctuated by the announcement that before the next general meeting on 30th April 2014, it would attempt to gather up to 13 million of its own shares, of an overall worth of up to one thousand million Euros, or approximately 3.6% of total share capital. Repurchased shares will be withdrawn in order to optimize the way the company structures its capital. The last repurchasing programme launched by this re-insurance giant ended in 2011. When he announced the half-year results in early August, the chairman of the Board of Directors Nikolaus von Bomhard had already stated his intention to resume reacquiring.