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RWE open-cast lignite mine in Garzweiler
Photo: © Ina Fassbender / Reuters / REUTERS
The activist investor Enkraft Capital has joined the energy company RWE and is calling for the controversial business relating to lignite to be separated.
Encraft hold more than 500,000 RWE shares, quoted the news agency Reuters from a letter from the investor to RWE boss Markus Krebber.
The "strategic adherence to (...) lignite activities leads to a significant erosion of values," it says in the letter.
This is difficult to accept for the shareholders.
If the supplier were to focus on renewable energies, which have been massively expanded in recent years, RWE would have enormous potential for value growth.
RWE confirmed that it had received a letter from Enkraft with questions about the strategy.
"Like every investor, we offered you to talk about our business strategy," said a spokeswoman.
Activist investors buy into a company to force strategy or personnel changes that they hope will increase the value of their investment.
In the past, Enkraft has mainly been involved in smaller companies in the field of renewable energies.
The investor criticized the management of the wind and solar power plant developer Energiekontor and demanded a review of the strategy.
But Enkraft has also invested in the real estate company Agrob.
500,000 RWE shares correspond to a value of around 16.4 million euros, a very small commitment.
By going public or convincing other shareholders, activist investors can also exert pressure with small holdings.
The letter to CEO Krebber massively criticized the RWE management: It was "incomprehensible why the board of directors and the supervisory board have not yet proactively submitted a plan to reduce lignite activities more ambitiously and more quickly and to separate them from the future-oriented business of RWE at even shorter notice." A separation will also help the share price on the jumps - RWE will then move significantly in the direction of the evaluation of comparable companies that focus on renewable energies.
The RWE Group, which used to focus heavily on coal and nuclear power, is currently transforming itself into one of the largest producers of green electricity in Europe.
Krebber wants to expand the business by 2022 alone with investments of five billion euros.
After the coal phase-out agreed with the federal government, the generation of electricity from this climate-damaging fuel should end in 2038 at the latest.
RWE intends to shut down a total of two thirds of its lignite capacity by 2030.
RWE wants to generate climate-neutral electricity by 2040.
Environmentalists and investors had repeatedly demanded more speed from the group.
VW chief supervisor Pötsch for a quick exit from coal
VW supervisory board chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch also called for a faster energy transition, which is a key prerequisite for change in the auto industry. After the federal election, the pace has to be increased significantly, said Pötsch on the sidelines of the IAA Mobility trade fair in Munich. “This applies above all to the framework conditions for electromobility, for example how sufficient green electricity can be produced in the future. This also includes getting out of coal-fired power generation quickly. "
Most recently, there were significant hiccups across Germany with the expansion and the necessary renewal of wind power and solar systems.
The chief supervisor at Volkswagen also sees the "far too long approval procedures for network expansion" as an obstacle.
This applies to the slow expansion of the networks to distribute additional green electricity and to protect against fluctuations as well as to the charging options for e-cars.
"The future of our industry is electric," said the chairman of the board of directors of the largest German company.
"That is why it is a central requirement for politicians to tackle the elimination of existing deficits on the way there as quickly as possible."
dab / Reuters / dpa
