People

AUDI AG: Fall cleaning I

On October 2^nd, 2018, the supervisory boards of Volkswagen AG and AUDI AG finally consented to the conclusion of an agreement with Rupert Stadler on the termination of his offices as a member of the managing board of Volkswagen AG and chairman of the managing board of AUDI AG, as well as his service agreements. According to the press release, Mr. Stadler is leaving the companies with immediate effect and will no loner work for the Volkswagen Group. He is supposedly doing so because, due to his ongoing pretrial detention, he is unable to fulfil his duties as a member of the managing board and wishes to concentrate on his defence. The contractual execution depends on the course and outcome of the criminal proceedings.

Leifheit AG: Supervisory board recalls CEO Thomas Radtke with immediate effect

The homepage still displays a prominent feature of the former CEO, stating “There is still plenty of potential in the Leifheit and Soehnle brands. We want to exploit this potential.” Not with him anymore, though. On October 15^th, 2018, the company issued a profit-warning and informed that the supervisory board recalled the former CEO Thomas Radtke as member of the board, releasing him from his duties with immediate effect. The original appointment of Mr. Radtke ran until the end of 2019.

According to the release, the term of Mr. Radtke is linked to the strategy “Leifheit 2020”. Despite a successful start in the initial phase of the implementation, more recently the success “failed to appear”. Hence, the supervisory board had “to accept loss of confidence of investors and business partners.”

Apart from the announcement of changes on the management board, the release also contains a detailed explanation of the amendments to the strategy and the consequences of the measures taken, including a profit-warning, which in part is due to expenses incurred in the context of the recall of Mr. Radtke.

An unfortunate development, but a fair and detailed information of shareholders.

Grammer AG: Ningbo Jifeng lost Grammer´s board members

Following the successful acquisition of an 84-percent stake by its Chinese majority shareholder Ningbo Jifeng, the members of the executive board of Grammer AG announced that they plan to utilize their contractual change-of-control rights and resign as members of the board. As an explanation for this move, the announcement stated that the unexpectedly high acceptance rate of the takeover offer of Ningbo Jifeng resulted in a more clearly than expected shift in the shareholder structure of Grammer AG. 

In particular the CEO Hartmut Müller has been central in the managements strategy to implement the group´s growth strategy, including the establishment of the strategic partnership with Ningbo Jifeng at a time when the company was the target of an unwelcome approach by another strategic shareholder. The change-of-control-clause exercised now by the members of the executive board was introduced in this phase.

The news release clarified that the terms of the business combination agreement with Ningbo Jifeng are still in force. The agreement contains extensive commitments for the preservation of the Group´s national and international sites. In addition, the news release stated that the majority shareholder supports the continuation of the company´s growth and innovation strategy as well as its financing and dividend policies. Furthermore, it indicated that the supervisory board expects to fill the board positions swiftly.