Schaeffler Bullish Over Koerfer Ruling

Responding to yesterday’s ruling by the Hanover court that its chosen Continental chairman would be blocked from taking up the position, Schaeffler has issued a statement in support of Rolf Koerfer. The German courts believe there may be a conflict of interests in light of Koerfer’s position as a Schaeffler family adviser, while the ball bearing manufacturer believes that Koerfer has the right to take up the position in the manner of a “shareholder representative.”

Schaeffler commented in a statement that “The company will initially carry out a legal review of this action and then react according to the new situation, which may arise with respect to the supervisory board meeting of Continental AG on 6 March.

“The fact that shareholders or their advisers may become members of the supervisory board, is, as indicated by the term ‘shareholder representative,’ a practice envisaged by the law. Therefore, the Schaeffler Group will continue to assume that also in this case there is no conflict of interests that would prevent the appointment of Mr. Koerfer to the supervisory board. Furthermore, all the supervisory board members of Continental AG supported the appointment of Mr. Koerfer to the supervisory board and his planned election to the post of chairman just a few weeks ago.

“The Schaeffler Group points out that in any case the general meeting will ultimately decide about the composition of the supervisory board and continues to assume that Mr. Koerfer will be elected chairman of the supervisory board of Continental AG.”