The boardroom drama continues to unfold at Aryzta, the Swiss-Irish bakery giant best known as the owner of the Cuisine de France and Otis Spunkeyer bakery brands.

On Tuesday, Aryzta announced that two of its largest shareholders, Madrid-based Cobas Asset Management and London-based Lodbrok Capital, were seeking to oust a further four members from the Aryzta board at the upcoming AGM on 15 December.

Both Cobas and Lodbrok Capital have stated they will be voting against the re-election of Mike Andres, Greg Flack, Jim Leighton and Tim Lodge to the board of Aryzta. Mr Andres, Mr Flack and Mr Leighton are all American, which is a further hint that Aryzta is leaning towards exiting its troubled US business.

Lodbrok Capital have instead proposed Jürg Riboni, a former CFO of Swiss dairy group Emmi, and Gordon Hardie, a Co Cork-native who previously worked with global commodities giant Bunge, as its two nominations to the board of Aryzta.

If Aryzta does move to divest its business in the US, it makes sense to replace the current Americam influence on the board with directors from Europe, which will become its core market by some distance going forward.

Board changes

The move by Cobas and Lodbrok Capital to oust these four sitting board members of Aryzta is just the latest chapter in a boardroom power struggle taking place at the bakery giant.

At an emergency general meeting (EGM) in Switzerland in September, a large group of dissident shareholders in Aryzta secured the overwhelming support of their fellow shareholders to move the bakery giant in a new strategic direction.

The dissident shareholders won three seats on the board, including the appointment of Urs Jordi as chair of the group. Jordi is the former CEO of Hiestand (the company IAWS plc merged with to form Aryzta in 2008) and served as CEO of Aryzta Europe until 2013.

With Jordi installed as chair of Aryzta, it’s likely the speciality bakery company will move to exit its business in the US, which has annual sales of €1.3bn and made profits of €67m last year.

Irish co-ops

While their shareholding in Aryzta has been diluted or sold down over the years, Irish dairy co-ops such as Arrabawn, Aurivo, Centenary Thurles, Dairygold, Kerry Co-op and Tipperary Co-op still hold a significant number of Aryzta shares between them. Combined, Irish dairy co-ops are thought to hold in the region of 1% to 2% of the shares in Aryzta.

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