Atel Holding Ltd becomes Alpiq Holding Ltd.
At the Extraordinary General Meeting of Atel Holding Ltd held in Olten's City Hall (Stadthalle) on 27 January, 502 shareholders voted in favour of changing the company name to Alpiq Holding Ltd., relocating the registered office from Olten to Neuchatel, a capital reduction, and the appointment of new members to the Board of Directors. All motions were carried by the shareholders, clearing the way for the merger, signed on 18 December 2008, with the assets and operations of EOS Holding as well as the energy purchase rights related to EDF's 50% share in the Emosson storage power station. Alpiq Holding Ltd. is now ready to start operations on 1 February 2009.
Schweickardt succeeds Schaub as Chairman of the Board
Today's General Meeting was the last to be presided over by Dr Rainer Schaub as Chairman of the Board of Directors. His successor and hence the first Chairman of Alpiq Holding Ltd. is Hans E. Schweickardt. In his farewell speech Rainer Schaub pointed out that Alpiq heralded the birth of a company "which is greater than the sum of its parts." Alpiq, said Schaub, brings French- and German-speaking Switzerland together under one roof and combines two different electricity mixes and customer segments in one harmonic whole. Schaub added that he was sad to take leave of such a successful company as Atel and at the same time proud of the new enterprise, Alpiq.
Board of Directors enlarged
At today's Extraordinary General Meeting, shareholders also extended the Board of Directors by appointing the following new members: Guillaume de Forceville (Financial Consultant to the International Department of EDF and Vice General Director of EDF International), Claude Lässer (State Councillor and 2009 President of the Canton of Fribourg State Council, Vice Chairman of the Board of Groupe E and future member of the Board of Directors of EOS Holding), Daniel Mouchet (Member of the Board of Directors of EOS Holding and Chairman of the Board of Services Industriels de Genève), Guy Mustaki (Vice Chairman of EOS Holding and Chairman of Romande Energie Holding S.A) and Jean-Yves Pidoux (Member of the Board of EOS Holding and Municipal Councillor of the City of Lausanne). At the same time Dr Rainer Schaub, Dr Dominique Dreyer and Dr Marcel Guignard stood down from the Board of Directors.
Nine-strong Executive Board
Following its constituent meeting held after the Extraordinary General Meeting, the Board of Directors appointed the following as members of the Alpiq Executive Board: Giovanni Leonardi (CEO), Michael Wider (Deputy CEO, Energy Switzerland), Kurt Baumgartner (CFO), Reinhold Frank (Energy Central Europe), Peter Heydecker (Trading and Services), Herbert Niklaus (Energy Services), Benoît Revaz (Business Development), Heinz Saner (Management Services) and Antonio Taormina (Energy Western Europe).
Path to Alpiq / the story so far
In 2005, in line with its objective of reducing its industrial interests, UBS decided to sell off its 55.6% stake in Motor-Columbus AG, today's Atel Holding Ltd. The holding was taken over by EOS Holding, EDF, a consortium of Swiss minority shareholders, and Atel. At the same time this laid the foundations for the industrial merger between Atel and EOS which has now been accomplished. On 18 December 2008 Atel and EOS signed the agreements governing the new joint venture, Alpiq.
Atel Holding Ltd Corporate Communications
Webcast
The speech given by Chairman Dr Rainer Schaub can be viewed in the media section of www.atel.eu as webcast (video recording).