topics
tools
Expatica countries
Index Last Var.(%)
BEL 20 2117.66 -0.08
DAX 6323.19 -0.26
IBEX 30 6401.2 -2.17
CAC 40 3042.97 -0.16
FTSE 100 5356.34 0.09
AEX 292.76 0.00
DJIA 12454.83 -0.60
Nasdaq 2837.53 -0.07
FTSE MIB 13057.26 -0.74
TSX Composite 11566.15 -0.09
ASX 4108.1 -0.29
Hang seng 18800.99 0.47
Straits Times 2787.22 0.52
ISEQ 20 501.76 0.16
You are here: Home News Dutch News Executives to appeal against repaying predecessor's...

Dutch News

archive
Enlarge font Decrease font Text size


16/12/2008Executives to appeal against repaying predecessor's pay off

French chemical firm Rhodia’s executives will lodge an appeal against having to reimburse their predecessor’s gold parachute of EUR 2 million.

PARIS – The French chemicals firm Rhodia said on Monday that two executives would appeal against a commercial court ruling that they must personally repay a predecessor's two-million-euro severance package.

Rhodia said the Nanterre Commercial Court had ordered on 3 December that Rhodia chairman Jean-Pierre Clamadieu and his predecessor Yves Rene Nanot reimburse the cost of Jean-Pierre Tirouflet's golden parachute.

According to the firm, the court found there was nothing improper about the October 2003 pay off in itself but ruled that Nanot and Clamadieu ought to have questioned the payment at the request of one of Rhodia's shareholders.

"This ruling therefore means that they should have contested a posteriori a settlement agreement whose terms were upheld by the same court," Rhodia said, in a statement to the media.

"Mr Nanot and Mr Clamadieu will naturally appeal this decision, making it therefore unenforceable," it added, noting that Rhodia's board had met after the ruling and expressed its continued full confidence in the executives.

Amid the global economic slowdown, the practice of handing departing company executives generous retirement packages has become politically controversial in France, and has been criticised by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Tirouflet left Rhodia in 2003 after five years at the head of the company. He received a parting "retirement bonus" of EUR 5.3 million in addition to his severance payment of EUR 2.1 million.

He left the company at a time when it was in financial crisis. A large shareholder, the Belgian firm Valauret, complained about the size of the pay-off, eventually launching a legal challenge in 2005.

According to Rhodia, the court decided the payment itself was legitimate but "nevertheless criticised Mr Nanot and Mr Clamadieu for not subsequently contesting this payment, even though it was found to be regularly made."

Separately, Tirouflet is under investigation over allegations that he had misled financial markets over the extent of Rhodia's liabilities when it was floated on the Paris stock exchange in 1998.

Complaints were lodged against him by two shareholders; banker Edouard Stern who was murdered by his mistress in February 2005, and financier Hughes de Lasteyrie, who died of a heart attack in July 2007.

Valauret is now acting on the deceased plaintiffs' behalf.

[AFP / Expatica]


0 reactions to this article

Be the first person to add a comment

General rating: Not rated yet

Rate article:    Add my rating



0 reactions to this article

Be the first person to add a comment
Discussion Forums

Americans in the Netherlands

reporting birth abroad

Relocating to the Netherlands

Taxation on Rental Apartments!

Housing in the Netherlands

Taxation on Rental Appartments?

Discuss Dutch Culture

High-quality fake passports, driver's licenses, ID

English in the Netherlands

Moved to Hengelo

participate in the forums

Inside Expatica
Setting up home in the Netherlands

Setting up home in the Netherlands

A guide to telephone, internet and television along with utility services water, electricity and gas in the Netherlands.

Dutch immigration and residency regulations

Dutch immigration and residency regulations

Lost in the Dutch immigration system? Look no further than this guide compiled for our Survival Guide 2012.

A brief introduction to the Netherlands

A brief introduction to the Netherlands

Expatica offers a whistle-stop tour of life in the modern Netherlands.

Giving birth in the Netherlands

Giving birth in the Netherlands

The challenges and benefits of the maternity system in the Netherlands and how it differs to other countries.