Panalpina’s board of directors is to hold an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) in Basel on 5 April, 2019 over potential voting rule changes.
The freight forwarder said it will be held to support the motion of largest shareholder Ernst Göhner Foundation (EGF) to implement the ‘One Share – One Vote’ standard to further enhance the company’s corporate governance.
On 25 February, 2019, EGF requested to amend the articles of association of Panalpina by lifting the five per cent registration restriction and the five per cent voting restriction – which it said was done to further enhance the company’s corporate governance.
Panalpina said: “With a view to facilitate shareholders’ registrations in the share register, it was decided to dispatch the formal invitation letter only on 15 March, 2019 and to close the share register on 14 March, 2019 (17:00h local time) in line with Panalpina’s articles of association.”
Since the company’s IPO in 2005, EGF was always admitted with all its shares in all shareholders’ meetings on the basis the five per cent voting restriction imposed by the articles of association does not apply to the shares of EGF because it has held its shares prior to the introduction of the voting restriction (grandfathering).
Late last month, Panalpina reported that in 2018 for the first time it transported more than one million tonnes of air freight – which totalled 1,038,678 tonnes and reported consolidated profit rose from CHF 57.5 million in 2017 to CHF 75.7 million (+32 per cent)
The forwarder has been the subject of much speculation in recent weeks after Danish forwarder DSV increased its takeover bid last month.
