The German company Grammer (Amberg; www.grammer.com), which supplies seats and dashboards for cars and utility vehicles, is currently engaged in a fight to beat off a hostile quasi-takeover. The Bosnian entrepreneur family Hastor, whose company Prevent caused such problems for VW last summer (see Plasteurope.com of 30.08.2016), has declared its intention to replace the supervisory board.

Patriarch Nijaz Hastor and his two sons, who own a total of 20.22% of the supplier Prevent via the holding companies Halog and Cascade International Investments, want to replace five of the six members of the supervisory board with their own people and then also relieve Grammer boss, Hartmut Müller, of his post.

"Unexpected and incomprehensible," was the reaction from Grammer. The board of management and supervisory board flatly rejected the demand, particularly as the Bosnian family has evidently not yet said anything about the reasons for their action and their objectives – despite what are claimed to be "several attempts by Grammer to make contact" with them. The plan is also unexpected because minority shareholder Hastor ratified the actions of Grammer's board of management and supervisory board at the Annual General Meeting in May 2016.

In 2017, Grammer grew sales by 19% to EUR 1.69 bn and increased EBIT by 70% to EUR 72m. Also against this background, the company is vehemently fighting this exertion of influence, and is supported by IG Metall. The automotive industry is unlikely to remain inactive either. After all, last year, Prevent behaved in a manner that was simply unheard of in the industry, and must not be repeated. Important customers are therefore likely to follow the actions of the shareholders very closely.

While Grammer is busy fighting the takeover battle, its US competitor Lear (Southfield, Michigan; www.lear.com) has agreed to pay EUR 286m to Grupo Antolin (Burgos / Spain; www.grupoantolin.com) for the Spanish supplier’s car seat unit (see Plasteurope.com of 13.02.2017).