CEO Marcus Pöllinger is still under pressure. picture alliance / Stephan Goerlich | Stephan Goerlich
Baywa plans to cancel the dividend for the 2023 financial year in order to increase the equity ratio. The stock fell by almost 10 percent between Thursday evening and Friday evening, increasing pressure on CEO Marcus Pöllinger. Pöllinger is already ailing. Only recently there was a power struggle in the management team.
At Baywa, the global agricultural group with billions in sales, there is no calm. The SDAX-listed company has announced that it will cancel its dividend for the 2023 financial year. The reason: Baywa said they wanted to increase the equity ratio. The news was not well received by shareholders. The share fell by almost ten percent between Thursday evening and Friday evening.
As recently as 2022, the company paid an above-average dividend of EUR 1.10 per share.
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Baywa CEO Marcus Pöllinger remains under pressure
The weakening share price continues to put CEO Marcus Pöllinger in distress. Since he took office, the share price has fallen by around 36 percent.
Pöllinger has only been in office for almost a year, but has been a member of the board since 2018. He took over the chief position from his predecessor Klaus Lutz on April 1st. He had led Baywa for 15 years and retired to the top of the supervisory board last year.
The Baywa at a glance. Collage: Dominik Schmitt
At the beginning of this year there was a power struggle at Baywa. In an extraordinary meeting of the supervisory board, the chairman of the supervisory board, Klaus Lutz, wanted to withdraw his trust from his former pupil Pöllinger – and thus remove him as CEO. But the plan backfired. In the end, the supervisory board did not withdraw its trust from Pöllinger, but from the former boss Klaus Lutz.
He announced his own departure from Baywa on the same day. But the power struggle has left its mark on CEO Pöllinger, who is still quite new in office, Business Insider learned from those close to the company. The ex-boss Lutz also has numerous allies internally with whom Pöllinger is unlikely to be on good terms.