The BMW Group Supervisory Board will exchange blood to appease investors

The BMW Group announced in its 2020 financial performance report on March 11 that it will nominate new members of the Supervisory Board.

At the 2020 annual meeting, the Chairman of the BMW Supervisory Board Reesef promised to reorganize the Supervisory Board in response to shareholders’ requests for improvement of the Supervisory Board.

From 2005 to 2015, Norbert Reithofer served as chairman of BMW for 10 years, which was one of the fastest growth periods in BMW's history. He was also one of the first executives in the automotive industry to foresee the emissions revolution in the automotive industry. Under his appointment, BMW launched the transformative i3 electric model in 2013, only one year behind Tesla.

But at last year’s general meeting of shareholders, the support of Reesef was not high, and they urged him to reform the board of supervisors.

Under the BMW corporate system, its board of supervisors is equivalent to the domestic board of directors and is not responsible for the company's daily business. It mainly approves the corporate strategy and senior management appointments, and represents the interests of shareholders.

BMW’s major shareholder, the Quandt family, has retired to the second line. The two brothers and sisters hold nearly half of the company’s shares. However, the support of the major shareholders alone is not enough for time to calm down. My own rights and interests and different opinions believe that the power of the board of supervisors is too concentrated.

Currently, among the 10 members of the Board of Supervisors elected by shareholders, three of them are too involved in affairs and monopolizing powers, and are considered to lack independence. They are Reesef, Stephen Quandt and Karl Ludwig Kley. The latter is the chairman of Lufthansa and E.On. He resigned from the audit committee in May last year. Prior to that, he served on four committees of the supervisory board.

The other members of the Board of Supervisors were deemed useless by foreign media, 'just to meet the quorum and make up the number, attend meetings and receive remuneration on a regular basis.' Industry experts have doubts about whether they can truly represent the position of investors and whether they can influence the decisions of the supervisory board.

For this reason, the three powerful members of the Supervisory Board agreed not to seek re-election because two of them have served for more than 10 years. Therefore, the shareholders meeting on May 12 will vote for new members to inject new blood to appease investors.

Candidates include: Marc Bitzer, CEO of Whirlpool, Rachel Empey, CFO of German healthcare group Fresenius, and Christoph, Dean of Leibniz Institute for Economic Research ·Schmidt.

In mid-2020, the BMW Group upgraded its sustainable development strategy, set a sustainable development goal for the next ten years, and made sustainable development and high-efficiency resource management the core of its corporate development strategy. The 2020 financial report shows that despite the huge impact of the epidemic, the BMW Group still delivered 2,325,179 new cars to customers throughout the year. The average carbon emissions of vehicles in Europe are well below the established target of 104 g/km. In 2020, global electric vehicle sales will increase by 31.8%