Czech billionaire Kretinsky is negotiating with Beisheim and Meridian about appointments to the supervisory board and digitization.
According to insiders, the major shareholders of the German Metro are holding talks to end their power struggle and to advance the wholesale group's business. The Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, who has secured just over 40 percent of Metro shares with a takeover offer by his investment company EPGC, is negotiating with the anchor shareholders Beisheim and Meridian, said several insiders of the Reuters news agency.
The conversations turned out promising, added a person familiar with the process. Among other things, both sides tried to find joint positions to fill the positions that will become vacant in the coming year on the Supervisory Board – there, three mandates will expire at the 2021 Annual General Meeting, including that of Supervisory Board Chairman Jürgen Steinemann. In addition, it is also a matter of driving forward the digitization of the group and sharpening the focus on wholesale and supplying customers. There are no results yet. The parties involved did not want to comment.
Beisheim and Meridian, who together hold just over 23 percent of the shares, gave EPGC the cold shoulder and rejected two takeover offers from the investment company for Metro as too low. They also pooled their voting rights after Kretinsky's entry and did not rule out further purchases of shares in order to expand their de facto blocking minority. The largest single shareholder Kretinsky, on the other hand, cannot rule against the existing shareholders despite his increased stake in Metro. Insiders said the previous position between the two sides could be dissolved by the talks.
At Metro, there are not only open personal details on the supervisory board. A successor for CEO Olaf Koch is also being sought. This retires at the end of the year. The group is now to be led on an interim basis by a dual leadership. The corona crisis is also affecting the group, and central customer groups such as restaurateurs and hoteliers are suffering from the requirements to contain the pandemic.
