Blackstone's new role

3 May 2007 By Lauren Silva

The private equity group has reportedly been agitating for Zumwinkel’s removal. Pressure is building for him to go but not till next year. Normally, Blackstone would be able to get rid of a chairman immediately. The fact that it can’t shows the oddity of its minority investment.

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Several supervisory board members at Deutsche Telekom have questioned whether the chairman, Klaus Zumwinkel, should stay at the company, the Financial Times says. Blackstone, which took a 5% stake in Deutsche Telekom last year and has one director on the board, pushed for the removal of the chairman at the same time that the chief executive was replaced last year.

The German government, which owns about a third of the group and has one director, at the time rebuffed Blackstone's complaint. Now some directors, including one government representative, are said to favour a quiet removal, with Zumwinkel going next year. The directors are reportedly concerned that Zumwinkel, who is also chairman of Deutsche Post, Germany's postal service, doesn't have enough time to devote to the company which is going through painful changes.

Since Blackstone paid E2.7bn for its stake at a price of E14 a share, the stock has declined about 4.5%.

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