Thomas Deser, Union Investment’s portfolio manager, has made it clear that he’s unsatisfied with the current direction of E.ON in a statement released just before a shareholder’s meeting of the German energy giant. “We’re missing the growth imagination in the business model of the new E.ON,” he wrote in his cutting statement. “This is a clear disappointment.” He warned that he was anxious to see innovative new ideas that could drive the company’s growth, as the effect of synergies sparked by the integration of innogy are wearing thin. “What happens next?” he asked E.ON’s CEO Johannes Teyssen. Teyssen has let it be known that he thinks that online shareholders’ meetings should continue to be held even after the coronavirus pandemic recedes, but it’s not clear it this is the new kind of thinking Deser demands. However, with every investor in the world able to attend the event, it’s the first time that 70 percent of the share capital has been present at an annual meeting. At the same time, holding the meeting online has proved to be a major cost-cutting success. However, the exemption that’s allowing supervisory boards and boards of directors to take decisions without meeting physically is valid for for 2020 only.
