Carrefour handed the chairman's role to its chief executive at a stormy annual meeting, in an apparent attempt to soothe angry shareholders who question the board's ability to stand up to powerful investors. Carrefour Chairman Amaury de Seze on Tuesday told a stunned meeting at a luxury conference centre close to Paris's Louvre museum he would propose at the next board meeting to merge the positions of chief executive and chairman.
The 65-year-old de Seze, who had chaired Carrefour's board for three years, did not say why he wanted to step down as chairman and hand the job to Chief Executive Lars Olofsson, 59. "I think the time has come to put the two positions in his hands," de Seze simply told shareholders.
The board, who met after the AGM, approved de Seze's proposal, and also named Carrefour board member and Colony Europe boss Sebastien Bazin as board Vice-President. The move puts Olofsson in the front line and under even greater pressure to deliver on its ambitious three-year turnaround plan for Europe's largest retailer.
Separately, stock market watchdog AMF said on Tuesday that Societe Generale had breached the 5 percent regulatory threshold on June 15 through the purchase of Carrefour shares on the market for its proprietary desk. The bank now owned 7.87 percent of the equity and 6.78 percent of Carrefour's voting rights, the AMF statement said.