Freenet CEO Vilanek: "The market does not want the UPC takeover".
Christoph Vilanek, CEO of the German telecommunications company Freenet, has harshly criticized Sunrise’s board of directors and, in an interview with *Handelszeitung* published online on Friday, referred to a «gross abuse of shareholder democracy.».
Vilanek says: "I always thought that in Switzerland, too, a company belongs to the shareholders and not to the Board of Directors. But the Sunrise Board of Directors doesn't seem to share this understanding."
Freenet owns just under 25 percent of Sunrise and is therefore the largest shareholder in the telecommunications company. Vilanek is resolutely opposed to Sunrise taking over UPC, as planned by the Board of Directors. In return, the Sunrise Board of Directors under Chairman Peter Kurer has decided to exclude the Freenet representatives from future discussions on the UPC transaction.
Vilanek is in the Conversation with the Handelszeitung optimistic that he will be able to prevent the UPC takeover at the extraordinary general meeting. Since he announced on Friday that he would vote againstWe received many calls from investors who share our opinion. They told us that they would vote against at the AGM. And these were not small shareholders." He continues: "The market doesn't want this. Obviously all the hedge funds are short on this."
If the management was so sure "that the transaction would go through easily, then it could argue quite relaxed: Freenet is against it, the rest are for it. The aggressiveness that has recently been heard in all the statements clearly shows that there are many institutional investors who have massive doubts about the transaction."
