Russian billionaire strengthens hold on Sulzer

Shareholders of the Sulzer engineering company have overwhelmingly elected to the board two candidates backed by Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg.

Jürgen Dormann, a former chairman of the ABB engineering concern, received 97.44 per cent of the vote at an extraordinary general meeting on Tuesday. It was announced ahead of the vote that if elected, he would automatically become chairman.

Another candidate backed by Vekselberg, the Austrian Klaus Sturany, was also voted onto the seven-strong board by a large majority.

Vekselberg’s investment group Renova holds about 31 per cent of Sulzer. It already had two representatives on the board. Today’s vote means that Vekselberg now has a majority of board members on his side. Two of his declared opponents were forced to give up their seats.

Sulzer’s former chairman, Ulf Berg, was voted out of office at the annual general meeting in April after a rift with Vekselberg.

Controversy surrounds the circumstances in which Renova secretly built up its stake in Sulzer, and an investigation launched by the Swiss finance ministry is still underway. However, Renova’s Zurich spokesman told swissinfo.ch in June that the group had been careful to stick to the rules of Swiss law while building up its stake in Sulzer, and described it as a “long-term investor in Switzerland”.

Many observers believe that Renova wants to merge Sulzer with technology group OC Oerlikon, which it also controls, and which faces financial difficulties.

Dormann told shareholders that he had no plans to do this.

Last month Sulzer said its order intake dropped by more than 30 per cent in the first six months compared with the same period last year and that it did not expect a quick recovery in its key markets.

swissinfo.ch and agencies