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Solar Millennium AG: Executive Board speaks out in favor of a quick legal solution to the Claassen affair
The Executive Board of Solar Millennium AG has spoken out in favor of a quick legal clarification of the affair surrounding the former CEO Professor Dr. Utz Claassen. The barrage of inquiries from journalists, which was triggered by Mr. Claassen’s consultants prior to the upcoming negotiations before the
Nuremberg District Court, is reportedly an imposition for the court as well as a considerable burden for Solar Millennium and its employees, explained CEO Dr. Christoph Wolff on Wednesday in Erlangen.
"Solar Millennium could suffer damages from this. In the question of whether Mr. Claassen was lawful in resigning after 74 days as CEO and keeping his signing bonus of € 9 million, we hope to have this resolved as quickly as possible and without any further attacks on the company from the media," says Dr. Wolff. Solar Millennium’s efforts to reach an out-of-court settlement with Mr. Claassen had been rejected by him.
In the coming weeks the Executive Board of Solar Millennium AG anticipates the results of the informal special audit commissioned by the Supervisory Board and Executive Board from the renowned law firm Skadden Arps. Among other things, this should clarify whether the company’s incumbent bodies acted properly within the scope of the law in connection with the appointment and resignation of Mr. Claassen.
"The goal of the special audit from the start was to provide legal clarity and transparency on the part of the company as well," said Dr. Wolff. In connection with this, the company had informed the capital markets and the public on the full wording of the object of investigation at the Annual General Meeting on 18 May 2011 and pointed out in the interim report on the first half-year 2010/2011, among other things, that the final outcome of the special audit was still pending.
About Solar Millennium AG:
Solar Millennium AG Erlangen, is a company that operates globally in the renewable energy sector, with its main focus on solar power plants. Together with its subsidiaries and associates, the Company specializes in solar-thermal power plants, particularly parabolic trough plants, and has taken a global leadership position in this field.
Solar Millennium is striving to further extend its expertise in this area with the aim of achieving and securing sustainable technology leadership. The Company covers all important business sectors along the value chain for solar power plants: from project development and financing to technology and the turnkey construction and operation of power plants. Solar Millennium realized Europe’s first parabolic trough power plants in Spain as well as the first modern parabolic trough solar field in Egypt. In Blythe (California), Solar Millennium is presently developing the largest solar power plant in the world. Additional projects are planned around the world with a total capacity of several thousand megawatts.
The current regional focus is on Spain, the U.S., the Middle East and North Africa.
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