ZURICH (Reuters) – Activist fund Bluebell Capital Partners has asked Richemont to broaden representation on its board, the Swiss luxury group said on Tuesday.
Bluebell wants the company to nominate a shareholder representative owning “A” shares and elect him to the board, jewelry maker Cartier and watchmaker IWC said in a statement.
Bluebell also wants the minimum number of representatives on the board of directors to be increased to six and for holders of “A” and “B” shares to have an equal number of representatives.
The proposals will be submitted to the annual general meeting on September 7. Richemont said he was reviewing the proposals and would comment on them in due course.
Richemont shares were listed up 1.3% in pre-market trading.
Jon Cox, analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux, was skeptical about the arrival of big changes.
“Richemont’s shareholding structure, which grants ten times the voting rights to holders of B shares, appears outdated by more modern governance practices,” he said.
“However, the share structure itself means that any changes in the composition of the board will be decided by (chairman) Johann Rupert and probably not by Bluebell.”
Richemont owns 522 million “A” shares, listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange, and the same number of “B” shares, which are unlisted and represent 9.1% of its equity. The B shares are held by Compagnie Financière Rupert, according to the company’s website.
(Report Michael Shields, French version Elitsa Gadeva, edited by Kate Entringer)
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