The Swiss banking giant UBS faces strong shareholder opposition at its annual general meeting on April 14th. The Ethos Fondation, the influential Swiss pension group, said it would oppose its board discharge, its remuneration report and one Board candidate maintain pressure on directors to seek redress for the crisis at the bank.
Ethos, backed by 80 Swiss pension funds opposes a UBS proposal to appoint Lufthansa chief executive, Wolfgang Mayrhuber, to the board. Ethos said the candidate already holds four directorships in large listed companies in Germany BMW, Munich Re, Fraport and Heico Corp. and the US. On the remuneration issue, Ethos said UBS did not hold to its word as it modified a pay structure approved by 87.7% of shareholder votes at last year’s AGM by introducing a second share incentive plan which gives a minimum payout regardless of performance and allows the doubling of the maximum cash payout of the bonus.
Ethos said it “strongly regrets” that the pay system approved last year has not been respected. Accordingly Ethos invites to vote against a proposal by UBS to ‘discharge’ its current directors from any role in the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 leading to the crisis that led to UBS being bailed out by the Swiss state.” Ethos said it would also oppose “any unannounced additional proposals” made during the AGM.
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