Aryzta, the Irish-Swiss food group chaired by Gary McGann, has said that a newly selected non-executive director who is the subject of an insider trading investigation is not going to stand for election by shareholders to the board.
The company announced the appointment of Juergen Steinemann in August, as part of Mr McGann’s efforts to renew Aryzta’s board.
However, it emerged in recent days that Mr Steinemann is being investigated by prosecutors in Dusseldorf after financial watchdogs became suspicious over a share transaction of his at the retail group Metro last year. He is the chairman of Metro’s supervisory board.
Split
At the end of March 2016, Metro announced it would split its consumer electronics and food businesses, sending its shares up by more than 10 per cent. However, five weeks before this, Mr Steinemann notified the market of his purchase of €1 million worth of shares in the business, which soared in value weeks later after the split.
Aryzta had previously said Mr Steinemann’s appointment would be put to a vote of shareholders at the meeting on December 7th and up till close of business on Thursday declined to comment whether he would still be put up for election.
The agm will see Mr McGann, Charles Adair, Dan Flinter, Annette Flynn, Andrew Morgan and Rolf Watter all being proposed again as directors. Wolfgang Werlé is not standing for further re-election however.
Next month’s agm is also the first major public outing for Kevin Toland, who was appointed in recent months to replace Owen Killian.
