(Updated after election of Supervisory Board Chairman)

DORTMUND (dpa-AFX) - A change of personnel and a farewell at Borussia Dortmund: Hans-Joachim Watzke, the previous chairman of BVB's management board, gave his last speech to shareholders at the Annual General Meeting on Monday. The long-time manager of Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA was bid farewell with long applause. For the first time, former professional and head of the youth center Lars Ricken sat on the podium as managing director and also addressed the Bundesliga club's shareholders.

There are also changes to the supervisory board of the SDax-listed Bundesliga soccer club after many years. The previous chairman of the supervisory body, Christian Kullmann, who is CEO of Essen-based specialty chemicals company Evonik, did not stand for re-election, as did CDU politician and member of the state parliament Bodo Lottgen. Kullmann had chaired the committee since 2021. Evonik manager Christian Schmidt and former BVB player and manager Michael Zorc stood for election. Both were elected by the Annual General Meeting with a large majority.

At its constituent meeting following the Annual General Meeting, the Supervisory Board elected Silke Seidel as Chairwoman and Ulrich Leitermann as her deputy. Seidel is a senior executive at Dortmunder Stadtwerke, Leitermann is CEO of the Signal Iduna Group.

Controversial advertising partnership

After the club members, the shareholders also voted on the controversial issue of the advertising partnership with weapons manufacturer Rheinmetall at the Annual General Meeting. However, the motion by critical shareholders not to approve the management's actions due to the deal did not stand a chance. A large majority of shareholders rejected the motion.

Shareholder representatives had asked the management whether the deal with the arms manufacturer had damaged the company's image. In his response, Head of Marketing Carsten Cramer referred to market research and membership figures. According to the surveys, there had been no damage. 195 members had left after the deal was announced, but 16,000 had joined in the same period.

The partnership with Rheinmetall includes the use of high-reach advertising space, marketing rights and event and hospitality services in the stadium and on the club grounds. Following the announcement of the deal, there was criticism from pacifists, human rights organizations and some fans.

A Rheinmetall spokesperson commented on Monday when asked by dpa: "We are taking the sentiment from the general meeting seriously and remain available for dialog and exchange. Regardless of the result, this vote also contributes to bringing the discourse on the security of our country to the center of society." The company welcomes Hans-Joachim Watzke's initiative to obtain a broad opinion on our partnership from the more than 200,000 BVB members in the coming year.

According to the company, Rheinmetall has received very positive reactions to the partnership, whether from customers, partners or politicians.

Dividend

For the first time since the coronavirus pandemic, BVB shareholders will receive a dividend again. The Annual General Meeting approved the proposal to pay a dividend of 6 cents per share by a large majority.

The dividend payment of over 6 million euros was made possible because the company generated the second-best financial result in the 2023/2024 financial year. The majority of the profit will go to reserves./lic/DP/he