ABO Wind AG: 87 percent support change of legal form to ABO Energy KGaA

The Managing Board of ABO Wind AG considers the clear vote of the General Meeting for a change of form into a partnership limited by shares (KGaA) to be a pleasing vote of confidence. At an extraordinary General Meeting, which lasted until late in the evening on Friday, 27 October, 87.17 percent of the shares represented voted in favour of the change of legal form. This also includes a change of name to ABO Energy. The new name reflects the technological horizon that has grown significantly since the company was founded in 1996.

"We are happy that many shareholders have recognised the opportunities that come with a change of legal form and company name," said Managing Director Alexander Reinicke. Among others, the representatives of associations for private investors (Deutsche Schutzvereinigung für Wertpapierbesitz DSW and Schutzgemeinschaft der Kapitalanleger SDK) had vehemently opposed the change of legal form before and during the General Meeting and collected votes against it.

A large majority of shareholders nevertheless followed the proposal. 7,064,373 valid votes were cast on the agenda item. Among them were 906,033 no votes (12.83 per cent). However, since shareholders raised objections at the General Meeting, the change of legal form cannot yet be submitted to the commercial register for registration.

The General Meeting and its results have also already been discussed in the German press (WirtschaftsWoche article of 28 October 2023).

In addition to the change of legal form, an enlargement of the Supervisory Board was also on the agenda. Due to the increased size of the company, which now regularly has more than 500 employees in Germany, the company is now subject to the One-Third Participation Act. This means that one third of the Supervisory Board must be made up of employee representatives. As a result, the Supervisory Board now consists of six instead of five members who supervise the management. This agenda item was also passed with a large majority, as was the election of the four shareholder representatives Eveline Lemke, Maike Schmidt, Dr. Alexander Thomas and Martin Giehl to the Supervisory Board. All voting results are available in German on the website (www.abo-wind.de/hauptversammlung).

As soon as the change of legal form into a KGaA has been entered in the commercial register, the two company founders, Dr. Jochen Ahn and Matthias Bockholt, will determine the management of ABO Energy KGaA as shareholders of the general partner. The previous Board members will continue to manage the company in their role as Managing Directors of the general partner. Thus, the two founders retain influence. This also applies in the event that future capital increases should dilute the majority of the founding families of currently approximately 52 percent.

"Securing this continuity and reliability for our business partners and employees was an important reason for the change of form for the Managing Board and Supervisory Board," says Managing Director Reinicke. "In the future structure, we can continue to grow on the equity side and at the same time retain the competitive advantage as a company shaped by the founding families."

The Managing Board also hopes to convince those shareholders who voted against the change of legal form of its usefulness in the coming months and years by securing a good development of the company.