Frankfurt In May it still sounded like harmony. “We can create a better company together,” said Deutsche Wohnen boss Michael Zahn at the time for the merger with larger rival Vonovia. “Even the work of our teams in the discussions was carried by a mood that shows that it fits.”
Seven months later, however, this agreement began to crack. On Monday Vonovia announced surprisingly that Zahn, who had headed Deutsche Wohnen since the end of 2008, would no longer join the new Vonovia board as deputy chief as planned.
The 58-year-old had “decided not to accept the offer made by Vonovia SE’s supervisory board to appoint him as deputy chairman of the board,” it said. In the past few months since the decision to merge, he “became aware that after 14 years as CEO of Deutsche Wohnen I would not have been able to drive the integration forward as impartially and objectively as it meets my own requirements,” explained Zahn.
The decision seemed “a little unfortunate” to him, criticized Marc Tüngler, lawyer and managing director of the German Association for Protection of Securities (DSW). It could even have a somewhat manipulative effect if Zahn did not actually want to move into the Vonovia board from the start. The personnel rogue “always gave the whole deal a taste,” he says. “You should have saved yourself that from the start.”
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Not a man of low tones
In the industry, it was doubted early on that the team of Vonovia boss Rolf Buch as number one with the new real estate giant and Zahn as number two would work in the long term. In the course of the takeover – which made the Dax group into Europe’s largest real estate company with more than 568,000 apartments and a portfolio value of around 95 billion euros – it became clear more than once how differently the two managers think and work. It was therefore questionable that Zahn would be satisfied with the role as runner-up.
In contrast to the mostly diplomatic Vonovia boss Buch, Zahn is not exactly known as someone who always hits the quiet tones. This also became evident five years ago when Vonovia tried to swallow Deutsche Wohnen for the first time and failed due to resistance from Deutsche Wohnen shareholders and CEO Zahn.
In the last – and now successful – takeover deal, Vonovia boss Buch was able to convince his former rival. The two managers then promoted the deal together and played the balls to each other in an emphatically amicable manner in interviews.
In a statement, Buch regretted Zahn’s decision not to move to Vonovia’s board of directors.
(Photo: dpa)
“Michael” and “Rolf” had praised the clout of a larger corporation and announced that a clear distribution of tasks had been found for the management of the real estate group, which corresponded to the respective strengths and both agreed: Vonovia boss Buch should essentially be responsible for political issues his, Deutsche-Wohnen-Boss Zahn as his deputy in the new group for the portfolio strategy.
A breakdown that actually made sense – after all, it’s easy to see how well Zahn knows the real estate world. The native Swabian trudges around construction sites with enthusiasm and shining eyes and is only too happy to pick up a shovel at the topping-out ceremony for the photographers.
If Zahn hadn’t studied economics in Freiburg, he would have become an architect. But that’s how he began his career in the Gehag Group, a housing company from Berlin that was taken over by Deutsche Wohnen. Zahn became a member of the board in 2007 and was appointed chairman of the board in December 2008.
Since then, he has consistently expanded Deutsche Wohnen’s portfolio through acquisitions: when he became boss, there were 50,000 apartments in the portfolio of the Berlin group, most recently around 155,000.
Buhmann of the expropriation campaign
But the growth of the group had an unpleasant side effect for the manager, who likes to keep his private life out of the public eye: Zahn became the bogeyman of the campaign for the expropriation of real estate groups in Berlin.
Zahn’s portrait was emblazoned on countless protest signs with which the supporters of campaigns such as “expropriate Deutsche Wohnen und Co.” raised the mood against housing corporations and landlords. The manager had to request police protection a few times – another reason why he shouldn’t be too sad to start a new chapter.
From Bochum, Vonovia nevertheless had words of regret. Vonovia boss Buch emphasized that he would “personally like to thank him very much for the constructive cooperation”. “Before he decided not to join the Vonovia Management Board, I have great respect and I regret it very much”.
In contrast to Zahn, his colleague at Deutsche Wohnen, Philip Grosse, will become a member of the Vonovia Executive Board on January 1, 2022. This increases the number of board members at the Dax group from four to five, because Arnd Fittkau and Daniel Riedl will continue to be responsible for their board departments. The manager Helene von Roeder, who was previously responsible for finances, will take over responsibility for the newly created digitization and innovation department.
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