Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and Nexter Systems, European manufacturers of military land systems based in Germany and France, respectively, will now operate jointly under an umbrella holding company, the companies said Tuesday.
The holding company was established under Dutch law and is headquartered in Amsterdam. Sole shareholders of each company transferred all their shares to the holding company in the legal form of a Naamloze Vennootschap (N.V. or nameless venture). In an N.V. the shareholders of a public venture stay anonymous while the shares can be traded on a stock market. In return, shareholders received 50 percent of the shares in the holding company, the manufacturers said in a statement.
Nexter Systems is a French state-controlled armored vehicle producer while KMW is privately owned in Germany.
The supervisory board of the new joint holding company met in Amsterdam as part of the completion process for the constitutive meeting. The board consists of seven members and is chaired by Christian Jourquim, a Belgian national.
The French owner appointed Jean‐Severin Deckers (APE‐State Holding Agency) and Bertrand Le Meur (DGA‐French defense procurement agency) to the supervisory board while the owners of KMW appointed Dr. Manfred Bode and Axel J. Arendt.
In addition to an independent chairman of the board, shareholders appointed Antoine Bouvier (CEO of MBDA) and H.C. Utz-Hellmuth Felcht to the board as additional independent members, the companies said.
KMW CEO Frank Haun and new CEO of Nexter, Stéphane Mayer, were appointed co-CEOs of the new holding company, the statement said.