ISS Recommends BMW Shareholders Vote Against Reithofer Appointment

Advisory firm ISS has recommended that BMW shareholders should vote against the appointment of outgoing chief executive Norbert Reithofer as chairman of the carmaker’s supervisory board, newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported, reported Reuters.

ISS said BMW would go against general corporate governance practice with the appointment as there will be no cooling off period between the two roles, the newspaper said in excerpts of an article to be published on Sunday.

Last year BMW said that Reithofer, who is close to the regular 60-year-old retirement age for top executives at BMW, will be succeeded by Harald Krueger, the company’s 49-year old production chief.

Fund manager Union Investment, which owns 0.7 percent of BMW shares, according to Thomson Reuters data, told the newspaper it would follow ISS’s advice and vote against the proposal during the carmaker’s annual general meeting on Wednesday.

Johanna Quandt, the widow of industrialist Herbert Quandt who is credited with transforming BMW, and her children Stefan Quandt and Susanne Klatten own almost 47 percent of BMW, according to BMW’s website.