Flop of the week: Shareholder group demands seat on NZZ board

According to the SonntagsZeitung, the NZZ Board of Directors is to negotiate with shareholders who are dissatisfied with the current management and are demanding representation on the top board. Two asset managers are behind the proposal, including Erhard Lee, who holds around one hundred non-voting NZZ shares through his AMG Analysen & Anlagen AG. "We have agreed to maintain confidentiality with the representatives of the shareholder group in question," NZZ President Conrad Meyer told the SonntagsZeitung. However, the shareholders will be informed in good time whether the agenda item for an election to the Board of Directors is "relevant or not" for the Annual General Meeting on April 18. Finanz und Wirtschaft had made the tug-of-war behind the scenes public. According to the SonntagsZeitung, there is a plausible reason for the displeasure among shareholders. Their shares are now only worth 36,000 francs, compared to almost 300,000 francs a few years ago. This means that the entire NZZ Group is now only worth 144 million francs. However, their main concern is that the "sustainable profitability of the company is in question".