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GIULIETTA TALEVI: Shareholder activists confident of getting Steinhoff to negotiate
Business Day asked European shareholder activist outfit VEB’s head of relations, Armand Kersten: why go after the banks at all?
Shareholders will have the first real opportunity to vent their fury on Friday as Steinhoff kicks off with its AGM in Amsterdam. Among the groups present is European shareholder activist outfit VEB, which launched a class action suit against the furniture retailer in February, holding Steinhoff liable for all losses incurred by shareholders. Now it’s set its sights on three banks that advised Steinhoff in the run-up to its Frankfurt listing in 2015: Commerzbank, Barclays and SA’s own Absa. Business Day asked VEB’s head of relations, Armand Kersten: why go after the banks at all? We do this based on Dutch case law that is cast in stone ... that has gone through the entire judicial system. In a case ruled by the Supreme Court in software company World Online quite a while back, the court ruled all parties, all the banks, had a duty of care. But of course there is also a tactical reason: we are in this to get the optimal compensation for the investor community for what’s happened at St...
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