Betsson shareholders launch boardroom coup

Boardroom upheaval at Betsson AB took a dramatic turn this week as four key shareholders launched a bid to take control of the firm’s board of directors. Major shareholders Hamberg Management Limited AB, Svea Ekonomi, the Hamberg, Boyer and Kling families and Berit Lindwall, the mother of outgoing Betsson AB CEO Pontus Lindwall, have called for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on 28 October.

(Sw) Med anledning av det noterade spelbolag som uppvisat en del turbulens senaste veckan kan konstateras att styrelsens totala aktieinnehav är cirka 1.4 MSEK och majoriteten av ledamöterna äger inte en enda aktie. Ordföranden har miljonersättning. Kanske påverkar detta utfallet.

— Mikael Pawlo (@mpawlo) September 24, 2021

In the meeting, the shareholders have proposed the re-election of current Betsson AB board members Jan Nord, Fredrik Carlsson and Eva Leach, as well as the election of Johan Lundberg to the role of chairman. However, the group has called for the addition of Lindwall and Peter Hamberg as board members, despite Lindwall surprisingly being axed as CEO earlier this month in a move that led to the dismissal of chairman Patrick Svensk. In a dramatic play, the group of shareholders has called for the exclusion of newly nominated chairman Johan Lundberg from the board’s nomination committee, despite Lundberg effectively serving as its main convener in his capacity as chair. This would be achieved via the replacement of current nomination committee instruction for the firm’s 2022 Annual General Meeting. “The nomination committee for the 2022 Annual General Meeting shall consist of members appointed by the three largest shareholders in terms of votes or known shareholder groups in the company,” the instruction states. “If any of the three largest shareholders or known shareholder groups waives their right to appoint a member to the nomination committee, the next shareholder or known shareholder group in order of magnitude shall be given the opportunity to appoint a member to the nomination committee. “The CEO or another person from the company management shall not be a member of the nomination committee. “The chairman of the board shall no longer be part of the nomination committee. The nomination committee’s term of office extends until a new nomination committee has been appointed,” the instruction adds. Betsson’s 2021 nomination committee consists of Kling family representative John Wattin, Hamberg family representative Jenny Rosberg, Knutsson family representative Michael Knutsson and ex-chairman Svensk. Lindwall is currently serving out the remainder of his tenure as CEO of Betsson AB after the board of directors called time on his reign as they felt it was time to appoint a “new generation” of leader. EGR understands that Betsson AB’s board of directors made the decision to terminate his appointment as CEO without first soliciting the consent of the operator’s largest shareholders. Major shareholders later forced Betsson AB chairman Svensk to resign from his position, after stating that they “no longer had full confidence” in his tenure, and a lack of “full trust” following the handling of Lindwall’s departure.