Wella Will Meet Demands of Rebels

Wella said it would welcome a special audit of the circumstances of its takeover this year by Procter & Gamble. It is a key demand of rebel minority shareholders who criticized the deal.

Wella had already agreed to demands from the shareholders to hold an extraordinary general meeting. The rebels, holders of non-voting preference shares, refused to sell their Wella stakes after P&G offered them only 65 euros per share, compared with the 92.25 euros offered to holders of voting ordinary shares.

The shareholders are insisting that, under German law, P&G cannot fully integrate Wella because it owns only 81% of the total share capital — though it owns 99.6% of voting shares.

The shareholder group — Ellott Associates, Arnhold and S Bleichroeder, Paulson, Perry Capital and Stark Investments — has called on P&G to enter a “domination agreement” by which minority shareholders would receive a pay-off.