BERLIN, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The investment management company and shareholder representative Hermes EOS urged Deutsche Bank on Tuesday to begin looking for a successor to the embattled supervisory board chairman Paul Achleitner.
Speaking ahead of Deutsche Bank's upcoming annual general meeting, Hermes chief executive officer Hans-Christoph Hirt argued that Achleitner shared part of the blame for the sluggish pace of corporate restructuring efforts at Germany's largest financial institute.
"In our opinion, (Achleitner) is ultimately responsible for the limited progress which Deutsche Bank has made in its quest for a value-added strategy," Hirt said.
Achleitner has occupied the role of board chairman at Deutsche Bank for six years and is officially scheduled to continue to do so for another four years. During his term of stewardship, the Dax-listed company witnessed several reshuffles of senior personnel and repeatedly failed to meet earnings targets in spite of an ambitious restructuring program launched by ex-CEO John Cryan.
Deutsche Bank suffered annual losses of 735 million euros (868 million U.S. dollars) in 2017, taking the total figure of cumulative annual losses since 2015 to 9 billion euros.
Hirt recommended to the Frankfurt-based company to draw up concrete plans for a replacement of the chairman. If Achleitner wanted to retain his post, he would have to "demonstrate that he leads more effectively."
Following the haphazard nature of Cryan's sacking in a recent scandal surrounding bonus payments, Achleitner has increasingly heard calls to resign.
Although the recommendations of shareholder representatives are not binding, they are usually accorded significant weight by U.S. and British institutional investors.
