Daimler major shareholder: Li Shufu was late – now threatens million fine

05/14/2018

Daimler major shareholder Li Shufu was late – now threatens million fine

[M] AFP; DPA

Major Daimler shareholder Li Shufu, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche: Access from China

Due to missed deadlines when joining in Daimler could be the Chinese carmaker Geely to a million-fined fine. As the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (FAZ) and the “Handelsblatt” reported, Geely CEO Li Shufu the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bafin) would have to report the upcoming participation earlier.

“Whether this could also be relevant under penalty law, we look at,” said a Bafin spokeswoman on request of the German Press Agency in Dusseldorf. “The maximum fine for natural persons is two million euros.”

The billionaire Li had joined Daimler in February with 9.7 percent. For such an order of magnitude there is a reporting obligation, which he met on February 23, one day late.

“The changes in Mr. Li Shufu’s voting rights to Daimler would have been reported on February 22,” Bafin said. “Mr. Li Shufu has now made the report to it – as usual in such cases – and corrected the later occurring, already published voting rights message based on it.”

Also read: Action red star – how Daimler became the trophy of the Chinese

Following the surprising entry of the Geely group into the Swabians, the Federal Government had announced that it would review the reporting regulations in the Securities Trading Act. The CSU finance politician Hans Michelbach demanded in the “FAZ” to tighten the law in order to achieve more transparency already in the initiation of share purchases.

At the beginning of March, the then Federal Minister of Economics Brigitte Zypries (SPD) generally demanded stricter rules for foreign investments in Germany. “We always have to adapt our foreign trade law to new developments, including the thresholds,” she told Spiegel. It was “a fact that investors can often exert considerable influence on the business development even with smaller investments”

la / dpa

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