FRANKFURT (Dow Jones) — The CEO of the chemicals trader Brenntag has promised his shareholders that he will continue to “deliver” in the future – both literally and figuratively. “‘We deliver’. This promise is true,” CEO Christian Kohlpaintner will say today, according to the text of the speech at the virtual general meeting.
Despite tight supply chains and other challenges, the DAX group was able to reliably supply its customers in the past crisis years, achieved record results last year and wants to return more than 1 billion euros to its shareholders.
Kohlpaintner also promised to further intensify the dialogue with the capital market and to create more clarity about the Management Board’s plans and their implementation in the future. “Before the summer break, we will give an initial insight into the further development of our operational business structure,” announced Kohlpaintner.
With the “Strategy to Win” presented in November, the second phase of its transformation process, Brenntag wants to strengthen and expand its market leadership with differentiated strategies for its two business units Specialties and Essentials.
Kohlpaintner did not comment on agenda item 9, the election of two new members of the Supervisory Board. The vote is likely to become a “showdown” in the power struggle between the group and activist investors over the future composition of the control body.
The British hedge fund Primestone has put forward two of its own candidates for election and rejects both of Brenntag’s proposals. Influential US shareholder advisors ISS and Glass Lewis support Primestone’s claim. Both Primestone and the investor Engine Capital had demanded, among other things, that Brenntag be split into a division for specialty chemicals and one for basic chemicals.
The German Association for the Protection of Securities (DSW) and major shareholder Klaus-Michael Kühne, on the other hand, had expressed their support for the Brenntag candidates. According to a report by the Handelsblatt, the investment companies Union, Deka and DWS are also behind the group management.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 15, 2023 05:23 ET (09:23 GMT)
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