Supervisory Board

Activist investors are launching more campaigns than ever before. And they are increasingly targeting larger companies, and not just in the US.

Clara C. Streit, Chair of the Regierungskommission Deutscher Corporate Governance Kodex, wants to promote a more productive dialogue between corporates and investors. And reducing bureaucracy is also a goal.

The search for a successor to resigning Supervisory Board Chairman Hasso Plattner has proven to be tougher than expected for SAP. The Group wants to clear at least some financial hurdles. The position is to be remunerated significantly better in future.

Union Investment still sees room for improvement in corporate governance within companies. Persistent issues on the deficiency list include accumulation of offices and lack of independence in control bodies. Mercedes-Benz tops the current governance ranking by the fund company.

The topic of ESG is not yet sufficiently defined for the activities of supervisory boards. Although the boards generally certify that they are highly competent in all sustainability tasks, the HKP Group's governance consultants give them poorer marks.

Once feared, now accepted and at times even appreciated: activist investors are taking a seat at Deutschland AG. At Bayer, they will soon even be on the Supervisory Board.

Heike Hausfeld, Head of the Works Council and Deputy Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board at Bayer, has already experienced several corporate crises. With the new organizational model called Dynamic Shared Ownership, she once again has to oversee an extensive job reduction program.