The recycling company Aurubis belongs to the upper echelons of the German economy and even more so to Hamburg's economic upper class. Listed in the MDax, 18.5 billion euros in sales, one of the largest employers in the Hanseatic city and full of self-glory about the transformation into a particularly popular business model at the moment: that of the circular economy.
For a few weeks now, however, the group, led by CEO Roland Harings (60) and Chairman of the Supervisory Board Fritz Vahrenholt (74), has been in a state of emergency. Top executives are eyeing each other as mistrust and power struggles spread throughout the company.
The reason: The group is missing around 200 million euros in its coffers, a good third of the operating profit planned for 2023; Criminals have exploited blatant control gaps of the company.
manager magazin editor Henning Hinze has researched new details about the spectacular criminal case and has come across a long-simmering conflict within Aurubis' management bodies.
In this podcast in an interview with editor-in-chief Sven Clausen, Hinze explains what fractures are opening up within the Executive Board, why the major shareholder Salzgitter, Germany's second-largest steel group, supports the strategy of CEO Harings half-heartedly at best, what unfortunate role Supervisory Board Chairman Varenholt plays and how all this endangers the stability of the former flagship group of the circular economy.
In the podcast "Das Thema", editor-in-chief Sven Clausen informs every week about the exclusive findings of the editorial team on a topic that is crucial for the German economy. You can subscribe to the podcast via manager magazin as well as on Spotify, Apple, Deezer and Google.
Soc