Deutsche Bank AG shareholders should not sign off on management’s actions for the past year, an influential advisory firm recommended, citing ongoing legal investigations against the lender.
Proxy adviser Glass Lewis listed probes against Deutsche Bank’s asset manager DWS Group and an unidentified management board member in connection with a tax evasion scheme known as cum-ex, a report published on Sunday said.
It also cited a raid last week related to the bank’s reporting on potential money laundering.
Photo: Reuters
While Glass Lewis said it is “unaware of any substantial indications to suggest that management board members overwhelmingly failed to fulfill their duty to shareholders,” it recommended shareholders “abstain from voting on ratification proposals as a matter of caution” as long as the outcome of the various probes is uncertain.
Deutsche Bank chief executive officer Christian Sewing and departing supervisory board chairman Paul Achleitner will likely seek to highlight at the May 19 meeting what they see as a successful turnaround of the lender over the past three years, yet the Glass Lewis report also shows how much the string of new regulatory and legal issues have cast a shadow over the German lender, despite a strong rise in profitability.
The issues cited involve allegations against DWS that it overstated how much it factors environmental, social and governance considerations into its investment decisions, and Deutsche Bank’s role in a tax scam known as cum-ex that allegedly has cost German taxpayers billions of euros.
Outgoing Deutsche Bank chief risk officer Stuart Lewis is being investigated over his role in the transactions, Bloomberg reported last year.
This year’s meeting will feature a motion by one investor to oust Sewing, even though Deutsche Bank has dismissed the proposal, and labeled it as “riddled with half-truths and conspiracy theories.”
The meeting will be the last for Achleitner, as he is set to be succeeded as chairman by former Aegon NV chief executive officer Alexander Wynaendts.
Glass Lewis recommended voting for Wynaendts.
The adviser also recommended voting against ratifying Deutsche Bank’s remuneration report, saying Sewing’s base salary was “excessive,” and criticizing “poor” disclosure on annual bonus metrics and performance targets.
Sewing earned 8.8 million euros (US$9.3 million) last year.
“We are concerned about the high base salaries paid to management board members, some of which have been further increased in the past year,” the report said.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS