After surprising entry of Chinese car company Geely at Daimler, investor Li Shufu does not want to join supervisory board of Stuttgart company. That was not a priority for him, said Geely-chief Li of picture on Sunday. "I never asked for a seat on supervisory board." Federal Economics minister Brigitte Zypries had expressed concern that a competitor of Daimler could gain insight into company's strategy with a Geely representative on supervisory board.
Meanwhile, MPs in Bundestag discuss wher it needs stricter reporting obligations when buying a company. According to Teilnehmerndarüber, both Economic and Financial Committee discussed wher current transparency requirements are still sufficient. According to a report from Reuters news agency, Federal Ministry of Economics wants to check wher regulations need to be amended.
Investors are obligated under German securities law to report ir shares in case of exceeding voting thresholds of three, five, ten percent and or higher thresholds of competent financial supervisor BaFin. On 23 February, automobile company Daimler said that entrepreneur Li Shufu acquired 9.69 percent of voting rights in car manufacturer. Li is supposed to have paid about 7.5 billion euros. Li is chief executive officer of Zhejiang Geely Holding group. A breach of three-percent threshold was refore not reported. However, this three-percent threshold does not apply to all financial instruments with which an investor can build a stake in a company.
According to his member Hans Michelbach (CSU), a report was called for in Finance Committee of Bundestag to clarify wher provisions of German law were followed and what sanctioning options existed in event of infringements. The Economic Committee also dealt with issue.
The green economic politician Kerstin Andreae affirmed that everything had been lawfully run in form of Geely entry at Daimler. "The federal government tells us at moment that everything was right. So we appreciate that too, "she told Reuters. The problem is that selected combination of stock, option and derivative transactions does not fully handle reporting thresholds. "That's just intransparent," she said. "That is why it must be legally controlled." The "sneaking" of an investor to a company may no longer be possible.
Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) had already suggested to clarify wher re are gaps in German law regarding transparency of reporting obligations for shareholdings.
Date Of Update: 01 March 2018, 12:02
