Krupp Foundation’s power weakens after ThyssenKrupp share sale

Key ThyssenKrupp shareholder the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen & Halbach Foundation saw its influence weaken after the steel group’s capital increase exercise earlier this week.

Paragraph entered by Atlantic migration, in order for SteelFirst articles to display correctly on Metal Bulletin.

The Essen-based steelmaker raised €882.4 million ($1.2 billion) in an equity sale on Monday December 2.

This reduced the Krupp Foundation’s holding to about 23% from a previous 25.3%.

Because its share is now below 25%, the foundation no longer holds the so-called “blocking minority”, which in Germany gives a shareholder the power to block certain important decisions at annual general meetings, such as mergers.

Another minority shareholder, Cevian Capital, would not comment on whether it had increased its shareholding, but said it could do so in the future.

“[Cevian] does not exclude [the possibility] that it might increase its stake,” a spokeswoman said.

The investor currently owns 6.1% of ThyssenKrupp shares.