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.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his