Suter not good enough, says new Crossair committee
Crossair boss, Moritz Suter, doesn't have the right qualifications to be included on the board of directors of the new airline, according to the head of the steering committee.
Rainer Gut said in an interview with the Swiss-German radio station DRS, the reasons for not choosing Suter were of a qualitative and not of a political nature.
The decision not to include Suter as member of the new board has sparked controversy within Crossair and in the half cantons of Basel Country and Basel City.
According to Gut, Suter was among 28 candidates put forward for the position of head of Crossair’s new board of directors.
However, the Crossair founder did not make it to the final selection round.
“I already told him in October that investors were not too happy with his performance,” Gut said.
Furthermore, the five members of the steering committee would have had trouble finding another post for Suter other than the head of the board, the Nestlé chairman explained.
Criticism
Gut said he did not understand Basel’s criticism of the candidates nominated to sit on the new board.
“I presented them with the necessary criteria and they could have told our contractors if they did not like it,” he said.
Gut also emphasised that the banks were able to use their votes on December 6, when the new board is due to be elected during an extraordinary meeting of Crossair.
According to the re-financing agreement the banks, namely Credit Suisse and UBS, do not have the authority get involved in the running of the airline. “The banks are only allowed to vote on capital increases,” Gut said.
As the banks own 70 per cent of the Crossair shares, only 30 per cent of public shareholders will be voting on the new set-up of the board of directors. There is still the chance Suter might make it onto the board.
There are many people at Crossair, in Basel and elsewhere, that hope Suter will become a director of the new airline.
“There is still plenty of water to flow under the bridges of the Rhine before December 6,” said Ruth Züblin, Crossair’s head of communication.
Swissair social benefits
A member of Swissair’s board of directors, Bénédict Hentsch, said in interviews with the Sunday press, that the money needed to pay Swissair employee’s social benefits (around SFr150 million) should be taken from the capital of the new airline.
Parliament is due to decide on this issue during an extraordinary session on Friday and Saturday.
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