TNT shareholders want more say

Thursday 25 March 2010

A number of major Anglo American shareholders in post and delivery company TNT are opposed to company plans to limit their influence, particularly on the naming and firing of supervisory and executive board members, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Thursday, quoting industry sources.

TNT wants to continue its current two-tier board set up (structuurregime) - with both a managerial board and a supervisory board. Under the traditionally Dutch system, both boards are supposed to act in the interests of the company and board members effectively name each other.

But a number of shareholders are set to vote against this at the April 8 AGM and the influential lobby group Riskmetrics is also recommending investors oppose the move, the paper says.

Dutch firms where a majority of staff work abroad are required to win shareholder approval to maintain the two-tier structure. TNT had been exempt from this until now, but changes in the post laws mean it must now put the issue to the vote..

The call on TNT to adopt a single board system comes at a time of increased shareholder pressure on the company to split off its postal operations, the paper says.

© DutchNews.nl

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