Nachrichten aus der Corporate Governance Szene
Dear readers of the GermanBoardNews, we are now back for you! The summer holidays are over, the madness of everyday life has long since caught up with us again. As always, we will keep calm and look at current topics through corporate governance glasses. The current situation: We have not heard much from the so-called Government Commission on the German Corporate Governance Code (DCGK) or from the Association of Supervisory …
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Dear GBN readers, before we say goodbye to the (summer) break before the next ‘wave’, another “Bravo, Jens Wilhelm & Co.”! Who is he? Jens Wilhelm, member of the Board of Managing Directors of Union Investment, but also: member of the DCGK Commission (of which nothing has been heard for a long time) and member of the Board of Managing Directors and the Presidium of the Deutsches Aktieninstitut (also the …
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Dear readers of GermanBoardNews, a house search at a former head of the supervisory board – that doesn’t happen every day. Last week, Wulf Matthias, the long-time chief controller of the scandal company Wirecard, was caught. And what Der Spiegel has to report about it sounds frightening indeed: according to the report, emails suggest that CEO Markus Braun, board member Jan Marsalek and Matthias jointly approved a dubious 100-million loan. …
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Dear GermanBoardNews readers, the sun has rediscovered Germany, Corona incidence values are falling and falling, the DAX is rising and rising – and Deutsche Bank continues to make corporate governance headlines. We read, for example, that the ECB has become involved in Paul Achleitner’s succession planning. Is it allowed to do that? As we have learned from the scandals surrounding Wirecard & Co, Bafin is responsible for supervising the German …
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Dear readers of GermanBoardNews, researching, discussing, forming opinions: There is more work behind our analyses beyond the writing than I imagined when we launched GermanBoardNews six years ago. In the course of 232 issues, a lot has changed: We have discarded sections and introduced new ones, put the website www.germanboardnews.de in the spotlight and involved the corporate governance community more. Through it all, one thing has never changed: We are …
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Dear readers of GermanBoardNews, “Beep, beep, beep, we all love each other”: Nationwide falling incidence and rising vaccination figures, the Eurovision Song Contest and the Whitsun Festival with open holiday resorts and outdoor gastronomy. Who wants to burden themselves with negative or critical thoughts? It’s all for naught anyway, isn’t it? Maybe, but it’s exciting, what’s being offered on the stage of this year’s HV season. And it raises pressing …
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Dear readers of GermanBoardNews, in response to my proposal to make supervisory boards more responsible and at the same time strengthen their position vis-à-vis shareholders, I often hear the following: Whoever holds shares is an owner. And whoever is an owner must necessarily have corresponding rights. More independence for supervisory boards is therefore against the system. Does that sound logical? No. Anyone who argues in such a formal legalistic way …
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Dear readers of GermanBoardNews, it is strikingly reminiscent of the escalation of the conflict between ThyssenKrupp and Cevian Capital: on the one hand, a company rich in tradition that is facing major challenges. And on the other side an activist investor who keeps increasing the pressure on the executive and supervisory boards. In the case of ThyssenKrupp, the escalation in summer 2018 led to CEO Heinrich Hiesinger and Supervisory Board …
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Dear readers of GermanBoardNews, this AGM season it is noticeable that numerous companies are shortening the terms of office for supervisory boards from five to four years (also for our Supervisory Board Member of the Week). As justification, the companies point with astonishing unanimity to recommendations of the German Corporate Governance Code (DCGK) and “expectations” of investors. So this can’t be a bad thing. Or can it? I would like …
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Dear readers of GermanBoardNews, “Greensill” – greed meets stupidity? Yet the city treasurers wanted to be so clever. It takes an effort not to be outraged again. Because the pattern is always the same. First everyone is naïve, then everyone knows better and has quickly identified the culprits. Of course, the state financial supervisory authority must not be left out, and the denunciation of its failures is often supplemented by …
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Dear readers of GermanBoardNews, after the Federal Ministry of Justice, the German Corporate Governance Code (GCGC) is now also on the minds of the environment, finance and economics ministries. The German government’s Sustainable Finance Advisory Board, which was set up by the three ministries, has high hopes for the Code: in its latest report, the board recommends that “minimum standards for the sustainability competencies” of management and supervisory boards be …
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Dear readers of GermanBoardNews, the AGM season has not yet really taken off – and yet we are already seeing some headlines that invite us to reflect. Deutsche Bank and Daimler – despite Corona – are reporting surprisingly high profits for 2020. And Deutsche Bank has another headline to its credit: The ECB is putting a damper on the bank’s bonus plans, the FAZ reported a few days ago. Other …
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