Affichage shareholders demand special audit and damages
Shareholders are fighting back at the outdoor advertising group Affichage following its loss-making expansion in Greece. A group led by investment advisors Max Müller and Antoine Spillmann has sued the Board of Directors for CHF 150 million and is demanding a special audit.
In addition, the Annual General Meeting on May 26 is to replace all members of the Board of Directors with the exception of Gilles Samyn, who has only been in office since 2008. Instead, the Group is proposing four new candidates for election to the Supervisory Board. These are publishing specialist Franziska von Weissenfluh, restructuring experts Jürg Müller and Claude Piccot as well as another candidate who does not yet wish to be named, as Antoine Spillmann, head of Geneva-based asset manager Bruellan, said at a media conference in Zurich on Tuesday.
The shareholder group led by him and Max Müller from the investment company Starlet Investment has a combined stake of 5.27% in Affichage. The largest Affichage shareholders, the French JC Decaux and Albert Frère, hold a capital share of 30 and 25.3 percent respectively, but are only entitled to vote with 5 percent each. Müller said that support of ten percent of the voting rights was sufficient for the requested special audit. He accuses the Board of Directors of Affichage of having committed serious misconduct during the expansion in Greece.
Advance payment before business review
According to a handwritten agreement, an advance payment of 21.5 million euros was made for the acquired company before the business audit had even been carried out. In this audit, the consulting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers then expressed concerns, for example that illegal poster sites were being used and that many contracts had only been concluded verbally. Figures from the Greek subsidiary had also been subsequently embellished. The Greek adventure has since cost Affichage around 150 million francs.
It was irresponsible that the Board of Directors had not pulled the emergency brake earlier. The lawsuit filed with the Geneva Cantonal Court for 150 million francs, which is also directed against the former CEO Christian Kauter, should benefit the company. Affichage itself has only sued the former head of the foreign business because the entire supervisory board would be jointly and severally liable in the event of a lawsuit against a member of the board of directors, said Spillmann. (SDA)
Affichage sues over expansion in Greece
Affichage: Shareholders file suit in Geneva
