Despite violent headwinds from the ranks of the shareholders, the CEO of the media group Bertelsmann, Thomas Rabe, can continue for another year as the supervisory board chief of the sporting goods manufacturer Adidas. Rabe received only 64.4 percent of the votes of the Adidas share owners at the general meeting in Fürth: inside. However, the result is sufficient for another year in office.
Rabe has been a member of the supervisory board since 2019 and was elected chairman in 2020. There had already been criticism last year because shareholders were critical of the double function as Bertelsmann boss and Adidas supervisor. However, the 59-year-old had received a mandate for another year, combined with the request to intensify the search for a successor.
“Unsuccessful succession planning”
“We approved Mr. Rabe’s re-election a year ago under the proviso that the Supervisory Board used the year for successor planning,” said a representative of the DEKA bank at the Annual General Meeting. He now spoke of an “chance that was wasted” and “unsuccessful succession planning”. Further shareholders had joined the reasoning, including Allianz Global Investors and Union Investment.
Rabe himself is convinced that he is still the right one for the post. In a letter to the shareholders: he had already admitted in advance that the agency can be felt as unfavorable.
“After a thorough examination and detailed discussions in the nomination committee, in the overall viewing council and with our CEO Bjørn Gulden, we have now come to the conclusion that stability, continuity and experience at the head of the supervisory board for our business success are still of critical importance,” he wrote.
Against this background, the Supervisory Board is convinced that its “many years of experience as chairman of the supervisory board of Adidas and other listed companies” as well as the “very close and good cooperation” with CEO Gulden in this “phase of great opportunities for Adidas is very valuable and necessary in order to further ensure the sustainable turnaround”, says the letter.
Despite the challenges of customs policy in the USA, Adidas is economically solid. In the first quarter, sales increased by eight percent to just under 5.5 billion euros. The operating profit climbed to 336 million euros after 60 million in the same period last year.