general meeting
Farewell in installments: Watzke’s last speech to BVB shareholders
Hans-Joachim Watzke is still in office. But next year the BVB managing director will no longer appear in front of the shareholders at the general meeting. The chairman of the supervisory board also said goodbye.
Personnel changes and farewell at Borussia Dortmund: Hans-Joachim Watzke, the previous chairman of the BVB management, gave his last speech to the shareholders at the general meeting on Monday. The long-time manager of Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA was farewelled with long-lasting applause. For the first time, former professional and head of the youth center Lars Ricken sat on the podium as managing director and also spoke to the shareholders of the Bundesliga soccer club.
There have also been changes in the supervisory board of the Bundesliga soccer club listed in the SDax after years. The previous chairman of the control committee, Christian Kullmann, who is the CEO of the Essen-based specialty chemicals company Evonik, did not stand for re-election, nor did the CDU politician and state parliament member Bodo Löttgen. Kullmann had led the committee since 2021. Evonik manager Christian Schmidt and former BVB player and manager Michael Zorc stood for election. Both were elected by a large majority at the general meeting.
In its constitutive meeting after the general meeting, the supervisory board elected Silke Seidel as chairwoman and Ulrich Leitermann as her deputy. Seidel is a senior employee at Dortmunder Stadtwerke, and Leitermann is CEO of the Signal Iduna Group.
Controversial advertising partnership
After the club members, the shareholders also voted at the general meeting on the controversial issue of advertising partnerships with the weapons manufacturer Rheinmetall. However, the request from critical shareholders not to exonerate the management because of the deal had no chance. A large majority of shareholders rejected the proposal.
Shareholder representatives asked the management whether there had been any damage to the company’s image after the deal with the defense contractor. In his answer, head of marketing Carsten Cramer referred to market research and membership numbers. According to interviews, there was no damage. 195 members left after the deal was announced, but 16,000 joined during the same period.
The partnership with Rheinmetall includes the use of high-reach advertising space, marketing rights as well as event and hospitality offers in the stadium and on the club premises. After the deal was announced, there was criticism from pacifists, human rights organizations and some fans.
A Rheinmetall spokesman said on Monday when asked by the dpa: “We take the mood from the general meeting seriously and remain available for dialogue and exchange. Independent of the result, this vote also contributes to centering the discourse about the security of our country society.” The company welcomes Hans-Joachim Watzke’s initiative to gather broad opinions on our partnership from the over 200,000 BVB members in the coming year.
According to the company, Rheinmetall has received very positive reactions to the partnership, be it from customers, partners and politicians.
For the first time since the corona pandemic, BVB shareholders will receive a dividend again. The general meeting approved the proposal to pay 6 cents per share by a large majority.
The dividend payment of over 6 million euros was made possible because the company generated the second-best financial result in the 2023/2024 financial year. Most of the profit goes into reserves.
Application for critical shareholders on the agenda of the general meeting
dpa
Source: Stern
