Page 25 - aruba-today-20170408

BUSINESS A25
Advisory firm: Vote out most of Wells Fargo’s board
KEN SWEET
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — An influ-
ential firm that advises big
shareholders says the ma-
jority of Wells Fargo’s board for are the two members of
of directors should be re-
moved at the bank’s an-
nual shareholders meeting
later this month, accusing
the board of having a lack
of oversight over the bank’s
sales practices.
Institutional Shareholder
Services said Friday that
Wells Fargo investors should
Panera is next step for JAB Holdings and low-profile family
DAVID McHUGH
CANDICE CHOI
AP Business Writers
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP)
— Its brands are some of
the best known in the U.S.:
names like Coty, Jimmy
Choo, Krispy Kreme, Keurig
Green Mountain, and now
Panera Bread.
But the same can’t be said
of Luxembourg-based JAB
Holdings Co. and the low-
profile, wealthy family be-
hind it. JAB’s $7 billion ac- Something in that formula
quisition of Panera Bread
earlier this week extends a
four-year campaign during
which the investment hold-
ing company has bought
up companies and brands
associated with coffee:
Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Cari-
bou Coffee Co., Stump-
town Coffee and Krispy
Kreme Doughnuts.
Those holdings come on
top of a 9 percent stake
in Reckitt Benckiser Group
PLC, a consumer health
company which does busi-
ness in most of the world’s
countries and sells brands
including Calgon, Cillit
Consumer borrowing up solid $15.2 billion in February
MARTIN CRUTSINGER
AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Con-
sumers stepped up their
borrowing in February as a
rebound in the use of credit
cards offset a slowdown in
auto and student loans.
Total borrowing rose $15.2
billion in February, the big- ruary, though it was lower
gest gain in three months
and an acceleration from
January’s increase of $10.9
billion, the Federal Reserve
vote against retaining 12
out of the 15 members of
the bank’s board. The only
members of the board ISS
advises investors to vote
the board who were elect-
ed after the sales practices
scandal broke, and Tim
Sloan, who was appoint-
ed CEO after John Stumpf
abruptly retired.
ISS is also advising inves-
tors to vote in favor of a
report on the bank’s busi-
ness practices.
Bang, Gaviscon and Air
Wick.
The instant recognition fac-
tor in premium brands is
part of JAB Holding’s ap-
proach to investments, as
the company puts it on its
website. It describes itself
as “a privately held group
focused on long-term in-
vestments in companies
with premium brands, at-
tractive growth and strong
margin dynamics.”
appears to be working.
The Reimann family behind
JAB has risen on Germany’s
annual rich list. The family
was ranked second on the
2016 list issued by Manager
Magazin with wealth esti-
mated at 29 billion euros
($31 billion) — behind only
Susanne Klatten and Ste-
fan Quandt, siblings who
inherited a large chunk of
automaker BMW.
The Reimanns’ business has
its roots in the chemi-
cal business founded by
Johann Adam Benckiser in
Pforzheim in 1823. He was
later joined by chemist Lud-
reported Friday.
The jump came in the cat-
egory that covers credit
cards, where borrowing
rose $2.9 billion after fall- activity.
ing in January. Borrowing
from auto loans and stu-
dent loans increased by a
sizable $12.3 billion in Feb- able gain in the October-
than in January.
Consumer borrowing is
closely watched for signs
of consumers’ willingness to
Saturday 8 April 2017
Large institutional share- a statement strongly dis- to strengthen oversight and
holders rely on ISS and oth- agreeing with ISS, saying increase accountability at
er similar firms to help them the firm is not taking into all levels of Wells Fargo,”
decide how to vote on cer- account the board’s inde- the board said.
tain company proposals. pendent investigation into While ISS did acknowledge
While ISS’s decision is not the bank’s sales practices. that the board is doing
binding, many sharehold- That report is expected to its own investigation and
ers take ISS’s opinions seri- be released before Wells has taken other actions
ously. It’s also the second Fargo’s annual meeting on like clawing back execu-
shareholder advisory firm April 25. “The extreme and tive pay, ISS said that the
to come out against part unprecedented ISS voting board’s actions have been
of Wells Fargo’s board. The recommendation on direc- “largely reactive,” and
firm Glass Lewis is advising tors fails to recognize the driven not by oversight but
shareholders to remove six active engagement of the by customer complaints
of the bank’s board mem- board and the substantial and actions taken by the
bers.Wells’ board issued actions it has already taken bank’s regulators.q
An employee passes an order to a customer at a Panera Bread store in Brookline, Mass. Panera
is being acquired by Europe’s JAB Holding Co. for more than $7 billion. JAB is better known for
the growing stable of brands it owns, including a controlling stake in Peet’s Coffee & Tea, most of
Caribou Coffee Co., Stumptown Coffee and Keurig Green Mountain.
(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
wig Reimann, who wound newspaper, published a list doesn’t consider JAB se-
up owning the company. of rich Germans, the Rei- cretive.
In spite of the years of manns went unillustrated. “I think JAB is relatively
high-profile business, the “There are no photographs humble and doesn’t need
Reimanns have kept a of the publicity-shy family,” to blow its own horn. Who
very low profile. When Bild, Bild noted. they are speaks for itself,”
Germany’s largest daily Panera CEO Ron Shaich he said. q
take on more debt to sup- consumer confidence. tal outstanding household
port their spending. Con- The Labor Department re- debt, which does cover
sumer spending accounts ported Friday that the un- home mortgages, rose to
for 70 percent of economic employment rate dropped $12.58 trillion at the end of
to 4.5 percent in March, 2016. That’s about $100 bil-
Analysts believe consumer the lowest level in nearly a lion below the all-time high
spending slowed a bit in decade.B The Fed’s month- set in the third quarter of
the first quarter after a siz- ly credit report does not 2008, just before the finan-
cover mortgages or other cial crisis hit.
December period. But they debt secured by real estate The monthly report showed
are looking for spending such as home equity loans. that consumer debt not
to pick up again in com- But a separate survey by secured by real estate
ing months, reflecting low the Federal Reserve Bank climbed to a record of
unemployment and strong of New York reports that to- $3.79 trillion in February.q