RWE AG (RWE.XE) Chief Executive Peter Terium is seeking permission from
shareholders to raise capital by up to 10%, should the need arise, the
daily Handelsblatt reports Thursday, citing persons close to the
supervisory board.
He is likely to meet with resistance from within the ranks of shareholders, the article states.
"I can understand that a board wants to have a complete
toolbox of instruments available, but that is going too far," Guntram
Pehlke, chief executive of the Dortmund utility DSW21, the largest
single shareholder of RWE with a 3.5% stake, is quoted as saying.
Permission would enable RWE to go directly to the supervisory
board, should the need for a capital increase become acute, without
calling an extraordinary shareholders' meeting.
"Shareholders would surely block a capital increase, and we
would also vote against such a move on the supervisory board," Mr.
Pehlke adds.
A RWE spokesman declined to comment on the report to The Wall Street Journal.