Swatch on Wednesday renewed its objection to an activist investor’s attempt to gain a boardseat, asking shareholders to vote against GreenWood Investors’ bid for representation at the watchmaker’s upcoming annual general meeting.
In a formal statement, the Swiss group said GreenWood’s proposed candidate - Steven Wood, who is the founder of the American investment firm - should not represent Swatch shareholders. The company said Wood lacked ties to, and experience within, the Swiss industry.
Swatch highlighted the formal mechanics of the challenge in arguing against GreenWood’s claim to a bearer shareholder representative spot. The company said only 4% of GreenWood Builders Fund IV’s holdings in Swatch were held in bearer form, while the remaining 96% were registered shares.
GreenWood did not reply to a request for comment.
The push for a bearer-share representative is not new. Swatch noted that Wood last year failed to secure the bearer shareholder representative role amid opposition from the Swatch founding family, the Hayeks, who control around 45% of the company’s voting rights. Ahead of that annual meeting, Swatch recommended a vote against Wood and 79.2% of shareholders voted to oppose his election.
Despite that result, GreenWood has continued to press for change at Swatch. The activist investor has called for a greater emphasis on the group’s luxury brands and in November published six proposals to alter the company’s corporate governance framework.
Separately, Swatch reiterated its own slate of board plans for the May 12 annual general meeting, reaffirming its proposal to elect Andreas Rickenbacher to the board. The company has additionally put forward Rickenbacher as its candidate for the bearer shareholder representative position in the invitation to shareholders for the meeting.
Swatch outlined Rickenbacher’s public-sector and corporate roles. He previously worked in the Cantonal Government of Bern and currently serves as:
- Chairman of the board of the accident insurance company Suva,
- Vice-chairman of the board of Directors of the electricity group BKW, and
- A member of the board of directors of Aebi Schmidt.
The election contest, and the differing nominations for the bearer-share slot, leaves the company and its shareholders to decide the immediate governance direction at the annual meeting on May 12.
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