Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Sika’s Board Says Burkard Family Lost Special Voting Privilege

(Bloomberg) — Sika AG, the Swiss adhesives producer whose management is resisting a takeover by glassmaker Cie. de Saint- Gobain SA, said the board considers that the founding family lost its special voting rights when agreeing to sell its controlling stake.

Burkard family members’ votes should be restricted to 5 percent, and they shouldn’t have the right to convene extraordinary general meetings, the Baar-company said in a statement today. The family agreed in December to sell its 16.1 percent equity stake and more than 52 percent voting control to Saint-Gobain for 2.75 billion Swiss francs ($3.1 billion).

Coming soon Lost Cells A podcast uncovering the human stories behind private stem cell banking's promises and failures. Get notified

“This exceptional privilege is solely attributable to the Burkard family’s close association with Sika, which stretches back more than a century, and its repeated public assertions of its intention to retain this close association and to protect the company against takeovers,” Sika said. “Now that the Burkard family have formed a group with Saint-Gobain, this historical privilege must be considered lost, together with the right to convene extraordinary general meetings.”

Sika’s management has threatened to resign, saying the deal with Courbevoie, France-based Saint-Gobain will undermine the Swiss company’s growth prospects. A shareholder group that includes the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation moved last week to block the sale, calling for a probe to see whether non-public information had been used. That increased the likelihood of a long legal battle.

The Burkard family is aggrieved by Sika management’s resistance to the deal, and has filed a legal motion to push forward with a shareholder meeting where they could oust board members who oppose the transaction.

Sika today said board members take the stance there’s no need for such a meeting, and that shareholders with a combined 35 percent stake have expressed support for the board and management. That’s more than double the family’s stake.

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Mulier in Geneva at tmulier@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Simon Thiel at sthiel1@bloomberg.net Tom Lavell, Paul Verschuur

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR