Stada investor AOC wants to abolish registered shares with restricted transferability
Stada [ETR: SAZ], the German pharmaceutical company, is facing shareholder pressure to abolish its registered shares with restricted transferability, Frankfurter Allgemeine reported.
Ahead of an upcoming shareholder meeting, the German investment firm Active Ownership Capital (AOC) is calling for changes in the supervisory board membership, the German-language daily noted.
The shareholder is also asking for the abolition of registered shares whose ownership change would need to be approved by the company itself, the report added.
Without identifying sources, the report said the latter shift would remove the most important barrier against takeovers.
AOC had accumulated a 5% stake in Stada by April, the article noted. It is asking for the new proposals to be added to the agenda of the 9 June shareholder meeting, according to the daily. The newspaper cited unidentified sources as saying that AOC wants to see the board contain fewer healthcare professionals and offer a stronger counterpoint to the management.
Among the five long-standing supervisory board members AOC wants removed is the chairman, Martin Abend, the report said. AOC co-founder Klaus Roehrig himself wants to be elected to a board seat, it added.
According to the article, AOC considers Stada to be lacking in efficiency and to have inadequately taken advantage of internationalization opportunities.
The article said there is no information on whether AOC envisages a sale, or wants to see generic and over-the-counter medications being separated from other business activities.
The daily learned from unidentified sources that AOC, contrary to some speculation, is not interested in talking with hedge funds that might function as its fellow-campaigners. Rather, according to the newspaper's information, AOC expects there to be enough dissatisfied shareholders that will support its goals.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung