News / Bitter row at HHLA as shareholders furious over dividend cut and 'spineless' board

HHLA Executive Board with Supervisory Board Chairman at the 2025 Annual General Meeting (from left to right: Executive Board member Jens Hansen, Chief Executive Officer Angela Titzrath, Executive Board member Torben Seebold, Supervisory Board Chairman Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Grube and Executive Board member Annette Walter)

The annual general meeting of German stevedore HHLA descended into a bitter row yesterday (3 July) as minority shareholders railed against a proposed dividend cut and the “surprising departure” of chief executive Angela Titzrath.

According to German trade publication Deutsche Verkehrs-Zeitung (DVZ), HHLA shareholders who did not sell their stake in the company to majority owner Port of Hamburg Beteiligungsgesellschaft (PoH) – 50.1% owned by Hamburg municipality and 49.9% by shipping line MSC – were furious at a proposal from the HHLA board that the shareholder dividend be reduced from the originally proposed €0.16 per share to €0.10 per share.

“This is intended to strengthen the company’s equity and increase liquidity. This shall improve the ability to finance investments even better in the future,” an HHLA statement said.

“In view of the majority shareholding of Port of Hamburg Beteiligungsgesellschaft SE (PoH), it can be assumed, regardless of the position taken by the executive board and supervisory board, that the countermotion of PoH will obtain the required majority at the Annual General Meeting and that a reduced dividend will therefore be paid,” it added.

The PoH join-venture owns 90.4% of HHLA’s shares and the AGM voted to cut the dividend yesterday.

According to DVZ, one shareholder estimated that the dividend cut represented around €5m, with minority shareholders losing out on a €200,000 payout.

DVZ reported that Dirk Unrau, managing director of the Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein region for private investor association DSW, claimed that “a dictatorship by the majority shareholder is taking place here”, and called the supervisory board “spineless”.

Mr Unrau also reportedly questioned the departure of Ms Titzrath, given that her departure – expected at the end of this year – occurred just one and half years into a five-year contract. She has held the position for nine years but reportedly was not involved in negotiations over the controversial MSC share purchase.

“Why don’t you tell us honestly that you were no longer wanted?” he is reported to have said at the meeting.

HHLA supervisory board chairman Rudiger Grube told the meeting that Ms Titzrath is set to receive a severance package of €1.58m and will also “will receive her contractually agreed salary of €550,000 for this year plus her royalties of the same amount, which are set at 100%”, DVZ reported.