ZURICH, April 8 (Reuters) – Swatch has once again opposed GreenWood Investors’ bid for a seat on the board and has urged shareholders to vote against the activist investor at its upcoming annual general meeting, the watchmaker said on Wednesday.
The Swiss company, which sells luxury watches with its brands Omega, Breguet and Blancpain alongside its plastic watches, said the American firm’s candidate and founder, Steven Wood, was not suitable to represent the interests of its shareholders.
During a bid for a so-called bearer shareholder representative spot, Swatch said only 4% of GreenWood Builders Fund IV’s shares in the company were bearer shares, while the other 96% were registered shares.
It added that Wood did not have connections or experience in the Swiss industry.
GreenWood did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Wood failed to secure a spot as bearer shareholder representative in May last year due to opposition from the Swatch founding family, the Hayeks, which controls around 45% of voting rights.
Swatch had then recommended shareholders vote against the election ahead of the annual meeting last year, with 79.2% of shareholders voting against Wood.
The activist investor has since continued to press for changes at Swatch, including for a bigger focus on luxury brands, publishing six proposals to amend the Swiss watchmaker’s corporate governance in November.
Meanwhile, Swatch reaffirmed its proposal to elect Andreas Rickenbacher to the board, and has now suggested him for the bearer shareholder spot in its invitation for the annual general meeting on May 12.
Rickenbacher previously worked in the Cantonal Government of Bern and currently acts as chairman of the board of the accident insurance company Suva, as vice-chairman of the board of Directors of the electricity group BKW and as a member of the board of directors of Aebi Schmidt.
(Reporting by Marleen Kaesebier and Oliver Hirt; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
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