That’s a clear message: “Anyone who doesn’t take sustainability seriously enough won’t be getting any more money from investors in ten years’ time. It will disappear from the market.”
These sentences come from the CEO of Deutsche Bank, Christian Sewing. They are intended to make it clear how important the topic of sustainability is in high finance – based on the ESG criteria: environment (E for environment), social issues (S) and corporate management (G for governance). But Sewing’s sentence is smoke and mirrors.
What is currently happening in terms of governance on the German capital market is a tragedy and a slap in the head for everyone who is trying to win the economy over to more sustainability. It has long been a thorn in the side of many investors that Volkswagen is – to put it mildly – a special case when it comes to corporate governance. The strong influence of the Porsche and Piëch families, the strong position of employee representatives, the influence of the state of Lower Saxony on the Dax group – all of this has always been difficult and yet tolerated by investors. The Porsche IPO is the icing on the cake and reduces everything that constitutes good corporate management to absurdity.