Wiesbaden, 20 April 2021 – In accordance with the provisions of German company law, Aareal Bank AG today published a new request – albeit unchanged in content from the first version – for extension of the agenda of the Ordinary (Virtual) Annual General Meeting on 18 May 2021, submitted by Mr Till Hufnagel, shareholder and partner of Petrus Advisers. At the same time, the Company published an additional request for extension of the agenda, identical in content, submitted by Petrus Advisers Investments Fund L.P, domiciled on the Cayman Islands. Both requests, which include identical proposals for removal and election, aim for the partial replacement of Supervisory Board members. Aareal Bank once again published the Supervisory Board’s statement in accordance with German company law, which covers both requests but has not been amended.
Mr Hufnagel’s reiterated request for extension of the agenda and the second request by Petrus Advisers were submitted since Mr Hufnagel’s statements substantiating his original request for extension of the agenda had contradicted previous voting rights notifications. Having pointed out these contradictions in its press release dated 14 April 2021, in a separate message Aareal Bank also drew Mr Hufnagel’s attention to the fact that by virtue of the law, erroneous voting rights notifications would trigger a loss of shareholder rights. In response, Messrs Till Hufnagel (partner of Petrus Advisers) and Klaus Umek (Managing Partner of Petrus Advisers) submitted a total of four new or amended voting rights notifications to the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – “BaFin”). In this connection, Mr Hufnagel re-submitted his request for extension of the agenda in a new letter dated 16 April 2021, and Petrus Advisers Investments Fund L.P. submitted a request with identical content in a letter posted on the same date.
The Company has now published both requests for extension of the agenda; the agenda for the General Meeting will be supplemented accordingly. The requests for extension of the agenda and the statement are available here, and will be published to shareholders in the same way as the notice convening the General Meeting.
Irrespective of this, there are still pending issues related to corrected voting rights notifications, which are to be clarified further – also involving BaFin and especially regarding the aspect of whether the persons involved are acting in concert.
