Investors in Deutsche Bank AG may request that supervisory board Chairman Paul Achleitner step down before his term ends if the group's ongoing restructuring is unsuccessful, Handelsblatt reported Aug. 16, citing major shareholders in Germany's biggest lender.
The investor criticism against Achleitner has grown over the past five years amid numerous failed attempts to restructure the troubled franchise while the financial performance and market capitalization of Deutsche Bank deteriorated. Under new CEO Christian Sewing, who took over in April 2018, the group has changed its revamp plan twice already.
Despite the criticism, support for Achleitner so far has been enough to keep him in the chairman seat, which he has held since 2012. He survived a resignation vote at Deutsche's 2019 annual general meeting but, at the same time, received the lowest approval rate of the entire supervisory board, with just 71.63% of shareholders represented at the 2019 AGM voting to discharge him from liability for his actions in 2018.
Given his age, 62, it is natural to assume Deutsche will be thinking of succession planning but investors currently do not believe it would be necessary for Achleitner to leave before his current tenure expires in 2022, according to Handelsblatt.
Nevertheless, this sentiment could quickly change if the latest revamp plan, announced by CEO Sewing in early July, fails, a major investor told the newspaper. Whether Achleitner stays on until 2022 largely depends on the success of the current strategy and a negative outcome would likely lead to him leaving early, another investor told the newspaper. Other sources share a similar opinion, Handelsblatt said.
