Towards the end of 2017 Deutsche Bank announced that it will rebrand its asset management division, Deutsche Asset Management. The division is soon to be floated as a partnership limited by shares, or a KGaA (Komandit), a corporate structure that will give minority shareholders limited influence over the entity.
The IPO is about to be launched but the legal governance structure of a KGaA is disconcerting to investors since usual shareholder rights and check and balances mechanisms do not apply.
Now one of BETTER FINANCE's German member organisations and Germany's largest association representing private investors, DSW, expects commitments from Deutsche Bank before the IPO and calls for an independent supervisory board. "Even though the controlling body in a KGaA does not have the power, as it would in an Aktiengesellschaft, it would be an important signal to the capital market and a positive step towards a successful IPO, if the board were to be made up of a majority of independent members," says DSW’s Chief Executive Marc Tüngler.