60 years of the German Stock Corporation Act: Modernisation urgently needed for public limited companies and Germany as a financial centre

In its 60th year of existence, the German stock corporation (AG) has lost much of its appeal and is in danger of falling behind foreign legal forms such as the Dutch N.V. An attractive legal framework with significant improvements in equity financing, the revitalisation of the annual general meeting, in particular with a reform of the law on defective resolutions and a reorganisation of the supervisory board, offers the opportunity to make the AG and the German financial centre as a whole more competitive. The EU's commendable plan to create a genuinely European legal form for all 27 member states for the first time with the introduction of an optional 28th regime in company law promises positive impetus.

Our study, ‘60 Years of the German Stock Corporation Act: Evergreen or Obsolete Model?’, conducted in collaboration with White & Case, is based on a written survey of the heads of legal departments at listed companies in Germany and interviews with experts from business, research, consulting and employee representation. Their responses make it clear that the pressure for reform goes far beyond the law on defective resolutions.