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1 results

  • 15 - Shareholder Engagement in Germany

  • from Part III - Europe
  • Edited by Harpreet Kaur, Chao Xi, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Christoph Van der Elst, Tilburg University, The Netherlands, Anne Lafarre, Tilburg University, The Netherlands
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Handbook of Shareholder Engagement and Voting
    Published online:
    10 September 2022
    Print publication:
    15 September 2022, pp 308-329

  • Summary

    In our paper, we survey the corporate landscape regarding shareholder engagement in Germany. We identify two main factors that constrain the possibilities of shareholders to engage in their company’s business decisions. The first factor concerns the legal design of the Aktiengesellschaft (AG) and in particular its two-tier board structure. A second factor concerns restrictions of shareholders’ involvement in the management of companies, especially when employees have a say in business affairs, due to the German co-determination rules. Empirically, shareholder opposition against management decisions plays a traditionally minor role. However, recent events like the dismissal of the managements’ discharge by the shareholders of Bayer in 2019 raise the question whether a new period of ‘shareholder activism’ is just about to begin. Recent developments rooting in the COVID-19-pandemic may well contribute to that transformation.