The real estate company Adler Group is in a crisis of confidence, but the general meeting on Wednesday went off without a hitch.

The shareholders approved the balance sheet for 2021, although the auditing company KPMG does not want to confirm the figures.

The real estate manager Stefan Kirsten, who was brought in to clean up in February, was first confirmed as a member of the board of directors and then elected chairman of the control committee.

Adler also announced that Thierry Beaudemoulin would remain responsible for the company's day-to-day business.

Mark Fehr

Editor in Business.

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Like two other high-ranking Adler managers, Beaudemoulin resigned on the day of the general meeting after the company had not received an audit report at the end of April.

The shareholders have now reappointed the three for three years each.

Thomas Echelmeyer is to hold the important office of CFO in an advisory capacity until a new CFO is appointed.

On the day of the Annual General Meeting, Adler's share price temporarily fell by up to four percent, but recovered towards the evening and ended trading with a red zero.

Normally, general meetings also vote on which auditor should audit the next annual financial statements.

In the case of Adler, however, this year is different.

Because after the previously commissioned auditing company KPMG declared that it was no longer available as an auditor, the real estate company has not yet found a successor for this important task.

"Our tendering process for a new auditor will begin immediately after today's Annual General Meeting," announced Kirsten, Chairman of the Board of Directors.

He has declared the goal of obtaining an unqualified audit opinion from the auditor for 2022.

To do this, an opening balance sheet as of January 1 must first be drawn up, as Kirsten explained at the beginning of May.

The Adler management is now opting for a fresh start and wants to bring more order into the nested group structure.

The majority stake in the Adler Group fell from the real estate group Aggregate Holdings to the major landlord Vonovia in February.

The Dax company now holds more than 20 percent of the shares.

The entrepreneurs Günther Walcher and Gerda Caner are listed as other major shareholders on the Adler website.

Both have ties to controversial real estate investor Cevdet Caner.

Almost two thirds of the shares are in free float.

However, private investors and small shareholders can hardly do anything against the large owners.

Investor protection officer Daniel Bauer explains why when asked by the FAZ "The general meeting was over after just 20 minutes, reports Bauer, chairman of the investor protection association SdK, who attended the shareholders' meeting.

There were no new findings, says Bauer.

He would have wanted to know from Adler's management why the forensic experts at KPMG had not been given access to a large proportion of the company's internal emails.

The SdK actually wanted to apply for a special audit of the Adler balance sheets after the auditors had refused their certification.

According to Bauer, however, this is difficult because, according to the regulations applicable in Luxembourg, the SdK would first have to get at least 10 percent of the shareholders on its side in order to submit an application for review.

According to Bauer, the majority of the Adler shareholders are foreign, partly passive Anglo-Saxon funds, most of which would not be interested in a special audit.

After all, there seems to be a kind of ray of hope: According to Bauer's observation, far fewer German private investors bought Adler shares than was the case in the Wirecard scandal, for example.