VW shareholder against re-poll of Wolfgang Porsche to board: report

FRANKFURT (Reuters): A prominent Volkswagen shareholder is urging investors to vote against the reelection of Wolfgang Porsche as a member of the carmaker’s supervisory board at its annual general meeting (AGM), a German newspaper reported on Sunday.

The shareholder, Christian Strenger, accused Porsche of “ongoing conflicts of interests” because he is also chairman of the board of Volkswagen’s controlling shareholder Porsche Holding SE, according to a six-page counter-motion for the AGM in May, cited by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

Strenger also accused Porsche, a member of Volkswagen’s Porsche-Piech founding clan, of “inaction in pursuing misconduct” by the company’s top managers over its diesel emissions scandal, the newspaper quoted the motion as saying.

Instead, Strenger said “truly qualified people” should be proposed to fill open seats on Volkswagen’s supervisory board.

Strenger is a small shareholder, but a prominent voice in Germany as a former and founding member of the government’s Corporate Governance Commission. He was previously a chief executive officer of DWS, the asset management arm of Deutsche Bank. Strenger and Volkwagen did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside of business hours on Sunday.

The press office of the Porsche division, where Wolfgang Porsche is also chairman of the supervisory board, did not respond to a request for comment.