PNE Wind stock tumbles as police raids shareholder meeting

German wind farm developer PNE Wind AG (ETR:PNE3) this week saw its shares plunge to the lowest point since December 2012 after a prolonged annual shareholders’ meeting held on Tuesday ended with a police raid.

The company said in a statement on Thursday that two policemen had arrived and sealed the room where the votes were tabulated and then gathered certain documents. A representative for prosecutors in the city of Stade told Bloomberg that the police had been there due to allegations of tampering.

PNE Wind itself knows nothing about any investigations against the company, its supervisory and management boards or its employees, it pointed out. The wind power firm added that it is cooperating with the police on the matter.

In early May, the company said it will propose at the particular meeting that three supervisory board members, including Volker Friedrichsen, be dismissed. It explained that the latter is “exposed to a permanent conflict of interest due to claims for damages made in connection with the acquisition of the shareholding in WKN AG and the competing activities of reconcept GmbH.”

The company’s shareholders have actively discussed the proposals during the meeting and some of them criticised the level of remuneration of the supervisory and management board, PNE noted. The extensive discussions have resulted in an unusually long meeting, which ended without results. The company has not set a day for a new shareholders’ meeting, but expects to do so as soon as possible, it added.

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