This week's bit of fun happens on Thursday when, for the first time ever, a Chairman-designate of a DAX30 company could be rejected by a shareholders' vote.
This, of course, is Infineon, a company where the shenanigans of its supervisory board have been entertaining the German press, and the rest of us, for the last six years ever since it backed a management coup to remove founding CEO Dr Ulrich Schumacher.
On Thursday, Feb 11, the
Hermes, and several other institutional shareholders, notably
Formal objections to Wucherer centre around his paying €500,000 to Siemens to settle a bribery allegation.
Kley told shareholders: "No individual transgressions have been identified either in his own conduct or in the areas for which he was responsible."
At the end of last month, Wucherer tried to soothe the situation by saying that, if elected, he would only serve for one year.
Hermes rejected this attempt to get the matter dropped.
Kley and Wucherer have been on Infineon's supervisory board during an unsavoury period in which Schumacher was summarily ejected, a public row with Schumacher's successor Dr Wolfgang Ziebart was fuelled by the supervisory board with unseemly comments in German newspapers leading to Ziebart's resignation, and private equity funds were approached - notwithstanding the appalling effect PE funds have had on the chip business.
So Thursday should be entertaining.
I'm a newbie at this, so I really don't understand what's at stake here. What's the point of serving one year only? Or is he trying to get in first, then say he'll serve longer later on? And legally, how long is the chairman's tenure? :)
I'm also a newbie to the ramifications of German corporate law, Why8, so I haven't a clue what the answer to your questions is. I assume he says he'll only serve a year to 1. Save face 2. Get a foot in the door and try and prise it open further, later, 3. Get a year's salary and perks - but to be honest I just don't know.