Shareholders in the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) recently formalized plans agreed to by the company’s board and core shareholders in December to give the company’s leadership freer rein from national politics in the management of the aerospace and defense giant.
The new governance structure is expected to be in place by April 2.
Shareholders also gave the nod to the board to authorize a stock repurchase plan of 15 percent of EADS’ outstanding share capital.
Under the new arrangement, EADS’ current core industrial shareholders, France’s Lagardere SCA and Germany’s Daimler AG plan to exit their stakes in the company while France and Germany will each hold 12 percent and Spain 4 percent. Still, the governance structure doesn’t provide a veto right to any group of directors in the board or to any shareholder at the shareholders’ meeting.
Tom Enders, CEO of EADS, said in December when the planned changes to the governance structure were disclosed that they would allow business plans and projects to be decided by the directors and executives “without any outside interference from specific shareholders or shareholder concerts.”
Shareholders also approved the following directors to the EADS board: Manfred Bischoff; Ralph Crosby; Enders; Hans-Peter Keitel; Hermann-Josef Lambert; Anne Lauvergeon; Lakshmi Mittal; Sir John Parker; Michel Pebereau; Josep Pique I Camps; Denis Ranque; and Jean-Claude Trichet.