The position of censor on the board of directors of Societe Generale occupied by Jean-Bernard Lévy is in question.
Employee shareholders of EDF denounce a “potential conflict of interest situation” of the current CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy, his interests having according to them “been able to influence its decisions and the meaning of its vote within the framework of the deliberations of the EDF Board of Directorsrelating to the takeover bid launched by the state, according to a letter seen by AFP.
These shareholders denounce in particular the occupation by Jean-Bernard Lévy of the functions of censor on the board of directors of Societe Generale, “one of the two establishments presenting the offer designated by the Statein this letter dated Tuesday, addressed to the CEO and members of the board of directors. “Given the ties that have united Mr Jean-Bernard Lévy and Société Générale for more than a decade, it cannot be denied that Mr Jean-Bernard Lévy is keen to preserve Société Générale’s interests as much as possible and not to adopt any behavior (including in the context of the expression of its vote within a governance body of another entity) which could be unfavorable to Societe Generale“, they write.
STRONG OPPOSITIONS TO THE NEW CEO
The other potential conflict of interest raised by these small shareholders concerns the very status of Mr. Lévy, appointed directly by the executive: according to them, the CEO would be unlikely to oppose the renationalization project wanted by the State. , since he would expose himself to dismissal. They imply that Jean-Bernard Lévy should have abstained from participating in the vote of October 27 which gave the green light to the EDF renationalisation operation, like the representatives of the State (which holds 84% of the capital) had done so. Contacted by AFP, the group’s management did not wish to comment on this information immediately. These shareholders, mostly employees and former employees who believe they have been wronged by the terms of the takeover bid, meeting under the banner of the EDF shares corporate investment fund (FCPE), have reiterated in this letter their request to convene a new meeting of EDF’s Board of Directors on the same subject. They hold less than 1.5% of the capital. With this in mind, they have already assigned the group on Monday to summary proceedings before the Paris Commercial Court, whose decision is expected on Thursday. During this hearing, the lawyer for these shareholders denounced the conditions under which the board of directors of the electrician validated the said takeover bid.
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These shareholders consider in particular “that the Board of Directors has not been validly convened, insofar as the statutory convening period of seven days, provided for by EDF’s internal regulations, has not been respected“. Another grievance,all the documents that should allow the directors to decide on the project” (…) “were not sent to the directors within a reasonable time, since they were received on October 26 between 8 p.m.“, According to this letter. On October 4, the French State officially launched the process of renationalizing EDF, a 9.7 billion euro operation wanted by the government to relaunch a vast nuclear program after a dark year for the electricity group.
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