New majority owners: Federal and state governments join Meyer Werft

The federal government and the state of Lower Saxony will join the ailing Meyer Werft as shareholders before Christmas. After antitrust approval was given by the EU Commission at the beginning of December, the federal and state governments should get involved on December 19th, according to a statement from the Federal Ministry of Economics. The federal and state governments each hold a 40 percent stake in the company, which has locations in Papenburg and Rostock.

Patricia Geibel-Conrad and Christian von Lenthe are to move to the company’s supervisory board for the federal government. Geibel-Conrad is a specialist in finance and auditing and has many years of experience on supervisory boards and audit committees. Von Lenthe is a lawyer with experience in the areas of restructuring and reorganization, among other things.

State sends economics minister to the supervisory board

In addition, according to the resolution of the shareholders’ meeting, Klaus Richter is to be appointed as an additional member of the supervisory board and proposed to the supervisory board as chairman. Richter looks back on many years of experience in management positions at the Diehl Group, Airbus and BMW, among others.

The state of Lower Saxony had already announced that it would send Economics Minister Olaf Lies (SPD) and business lawyer Anne Deter from the Ministry of Finance to the committee. The works council still has to decide on the composition of employee representatives on the supervisory board, said a spokesman for IG Metall Coast.

The federal government and the state of Lower Saxony agreed in the summer to rescue the financially struggling traditional company worth billions. The contracts, which also provide for the state to invest in Meyer Werft, were signed in September. In addition to shares in the shipyard, the federal and state governments have also taken over guarantees for loans worth 2.6 billion euros.