Allianz CFO Paul Achleitner spoke to Allianz.com News about the agreement on codetermination rights in the future Allianz SE.
Allianz Group
Munich, Sep 21, 2006
Allianz.com News: When will the new SE Supervisory Board begin its work?
Achleitner: When Allianz SE is entered in the Commercial Register, which we anticipate will be in mid-October. The employees' representatives named in the agreement will be appointed through a court of law as swiftly as possible after that.
Pier Riches, Rolf Zimmermann, Sergio Tasselli, Paul Achleitner, Paolo Vagnone and Gerhard Rupprecht after the signing
? How will the seats for employees' representatives be divided between the different countries?
Achleitner: We need to distinguish here between the Supervisory Board and the SE Works Council. The number of representatives in each body essentially depends on the number of employees in the individual European countries. Of the six employees’ representatives on the Supervisory Board, four will be from Germany (including one union representative), one from France and one from the UK.
As for the SE Works Council, every country in which Allianz has at least 100 employees, will be represented. The first council will have 37 members from 24 countries, including ten representatives from Germany and three each from Italy, France and the United Kingdom.
? Could that change in the future?
Achleitner: Changes could take place in the future if the number of employees in the individual European countries changes. The constellation of the SE Works council will be adjusted on an annual basis should this happen. As regards the Supervisory Board, any changes to its composition will apply to the next period of office.
? How did the negotiations go?
Achleitner: The six months of negotiations between the management of Allianz and RAS and the "Special Negotiation Body", which represented the employees' interests, were extremely open and constructive. I think both sides will be satisfied with the outcome we have reached together.
Achleitner: "Both sides will be satisfied with the outcome"
? What signal does this send to the market?
Achleitner: In creating a Societas Europaea, we are successfully breaking new ground together. The reason for converting to a European Company is to fully integrate our Italian subsidiary RAS by way of a cross-border merger that will also greatly simplify the structure of the Allianz Group in Europe.
Yet this conversion also indicates that we are becoming less German and more European. We think that is a good cultural signal, but we also made a conscious decision to maintain our headquarters in Munich.
The reduction of the Supervisory Board from 20 to only twelve members is also significant. Creating Supervisory Boards which are not too large to function is a particular challenge of the German system, as over-large boards lose out in terms of efficiency and confidentiality.
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