ThyssenKrupp, quo vadis? – WORLD

Stand: 06:48 | Reading time: 4 minutes

W ut is being unloaded nowadays in social networks. This also applies to the case of Heinrich Hiesinger. After the surprise resignation of ThyssenKrupp's boss a few days ago, employees of the Ruhr Group wrote an open letter to Ursula Gather and posted it on the company's intranet – with very clear words in direction of Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach Shareholder of ThyssenKrupp. "We are sad, disappointed and angry," it is said in the highly commented internal letter that WELT exists. And these are even the most harmless words.

Gather is considered a regicide in the labor market, so at least the unnamed signed letter can be interpreted. "They have been watching in their unprecedented ignorance the whereabouts of the enemy investors and know since the death of Berthold Beitz not publicly publicly once again to Heinrich Hiesinger and his corporate policy.This is shameful."

Context of hostility is Gather's persistent silence particularly in recent months, when Hiesinger was under fire from mbadive financial investors, namely Cevian Capital and Elliott. Thus, she had gradually dismantled the manager and led to the exit, say industry watchers. Hiesinger himself has never made this link publicly. Between the lines is in his farewell statements but through that he would have liked more support.

Now, the traditional group of the Ruhr was heading for an uncertain future. There are two scenarios in the room: a fractionation or preservation as a conglomerate with the current business areas of the elevators, the construction of factories and auto parts as well as the shipyards and the trade of materials. Hiesinger has always preferred variant 2, that is to say a conglomerate – or, as he always has said: a diverse industrial group. Especially without the highly cyclical activity of steel, which will be created after the approval of the antitrust authorities in the coming months as part of a joint venture with the Indian competitor Tata Steel and only as a group participation. Hiesinger wanted to present the strategy of the rest of ThyssenKrupp to the Supervisory Board this week. But now the plans remain in the drawer: no boss, no strategy.

The consequences should now be a violent directional conflict on the Supervisory Board. On the one hand, there are militant investors, who are pushing for a radical restructuring of the group up to the break, and who are also making a strong impression among the representatives of capital. "The fundamental problem with conglomerates is that management can not focus on all sectors at the same time," Cevian co-founder Lars Förberg recently told the Handelsblatt newspaper. In any case, ThyssenKrupp does not meet expectations and earns less than the competition in certain areas of activity. Clearly, the more than two years of steel merger negotiations currently in place have created considerable capabilities.

On the other hand, some workers, for example, have already clearly expressed their opposition to a breakup. In any event, Wilhelm Segerath, who heads the ThyssenKrupp Company Committee and sits on the Supervisory Board as a representative of IG Metall, expressly warns against the liquidation of individual divisions. But Superintendent Ulrich Lehner is also considered a defender of cohesion.

Since 1968, the Krupp Foundation has been managing the legacy of Alfried Krupp, the last member of the family at the top of the group. According to the bylaws, the foundation has the task of managing its badets in the "spirit of the founder" to ensure that "the unity of this business is also possible and that development is promoted." But Governor Gather seems to be going now. It was reported that even his approval for the steel merger with Tata Steel was not certain at the decisive meeting of the Supervisory Board at the end of June. In the end, she supported in the vote the plans of the management of Hiesinger, contrary to the representative Cevian Jens Tischendorf, former CEO of Telekom Rene Obermann – according to the insiders has now offered his resignation from the control committee – and Carola Countess von Schmettow, Head of the German branch of HSBC Bank. Gather, who is the rector of UT Dortmund, has since supported the board of directors, but since then no longer.

Later, in a press release "with great regret", the resignation of the CEO is mentioned and Gather emphasizes at the same time "always Mr. Hiesinger You have no longer supported the staff. The Foundation failed in its core mission of preserving Alfried Krupp's legacy, write staff members in their open letter to Gather. In the past, they were proud and could say: our foundation Krupp. "We can not say as much about the Krupp Foundation today, our trust is not only shaken, it is disappearing." Maybe the foundation will begin a new beginning. "With you, Professor, it will not exist. "

Gaher does not want to comment on this criticism.At the latest, however, their voting behavior in the election of a new general manager must be understood as a statement. The appointment of the Main Staff will be an indicator of the direction ThyssenKrupp is developing, and there is not even a timetable, at least not public. the remaining members of the board of directors, Guido Kerkhoff, Oliver Burkhard and Donatus Kaufmann, will continue the company without chairman of the board of directors.