2023-06-15 18:10:09
Dhe general meeting of the fund company DWS on Thursday not only lasted an unusually long time, there were also striking voting results. The management of DWS was only exonerated by 89.8 percent of the voting shareholders. The long-time chairman of the supervisory board, Karl von Rohr, from the board of directors of Deutsche Bank, was re-elected to the supervisory board with only 91.7 percent of the votes, the worst result of all eight shareholder representatives. However, Deutsche Bank, which holds nearly 80 percent of DWS shares, did not take part in either of these two votes.
All other votes were more positive with approval rates of at least 97 percent, including the vote for the remuneration report with the previously controversial severance payment for former CEO Asoka Wöhrmann. After a raid that investigated allegations that DWS had labeled systems as greener than they actually are (“greenwashing”), Wöhrmann voluntarily resigned a year ago. The supervisory board approved him a severance payment of 8.15 million euros. In addition, DWS paid him his full annual salary of 5.6 million euros.
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At this year’s Annual General Meeting, which was held exclusively digitally, the focus was on greenwashing allegations and DWS’ investments in shares of climate-damaging companies criticized by Greenpeace and other environmental organizations. The day before the annual shareholders’ meeting, these organizations had presented calculations that DWS is significantly more invested in climate-damaging companies than its competitors Allianz (Time.news), Union and Deka.
The parent company Deutsche Bank is also feeling headwind in the current quarter. In its most important division, trading in fixed income securities and currencies, earnings could be 15 to 20 percent lower than in the same quarter last year, CFO James von Moltke said in Paris on Thursday. This puts the bank in line with its competitors: US bank J.P. Morgan also expects its trading and investment banking earnings to fall by 15 percent, while Goldman Sachs is even preparing investors for a 25 percent drop. Morgan Stanley is also waiting for lower earnings, with only Bank of America expecting flat investment banking earnings this quarter.
However, von Moltke confirmed the goals of the Deutsche Bank Group for 2023 and 2025, after all the higher interest rates compensate for the collapsing income in the trading business.
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