For Axpo boss Christoph Brand (53), 2022 has been a year to be forgotten. It is true that in the fiscal year ending at the end of September, he made a profit of about 600 million Swiss francs with his company. But what should not be forgotten is the fact that the country’s largest electricity company had to turn to the federal government for help due to liquidity bottlenecks. The reason: Axpo was forced to deposit additional securities for electricity trading on the exchange after energy prices soared to unprecedented levels.
Until now, Axpo has not had to use the four billion Swiss franc line of credit used in an emergency. However, the energy giant also lost a lot of trust among shareholders with the campaign. The owner of the cantons of Zurich, Aargau, Zug, Schaffhausen and Glarus decided this week that Axpo’s management be overseen by an external, independent body. A clear vote of no confidence in the administration.
The investigation focuses, among other things, on business activities in Germany and abroad. In essence, it should be about the question: Do Axpo’s trading businesses, which have expanded greatly in recent years, actually still serve to secure supply in Switzerland? Or was government assistance necessary as the energy company now gambles like an investment bank?
At Wall Street level
The results of the test should be available in the spring of 2023. But one thing is for sure: At least when it comes to pricing, Axpo traders don’t have to hide from their Wall Street counterparts. In conversations with former Axpo executives, SonntagsBlick learned that top retailers can earn several million francs, and thus more than CEO Brand, who had a salary of just over a million francs last fiscal year.
Axpo does not dispute this information when asked by SonntagsBlick. However, the media office emphasizes that dealers’ fees are “result related”. “This also means that they participate in the disappearances through a malus system,” says a spokesperson. The company also states that management and the CEO are currently not receiving any variable salary components.
Axpo does not wish to comment further on the employment contracts and wages of individual employees “for personal and protection reasons”. “Such information is confidential,” the media outlet said.
Therefore, the company also leaves unanswered the question of how many top traders there are at Axpo who can earn more than a million francs a year, whether and by what amount the total fee of Axpo traders is capped in millions.
The financial portal “Inside Paradeplatz” wrote in mid-September that according to insider information, there were 15 Axpo traders who earned one million francs and over. The media did the same last week, announcing that “top traders from Helvetia’s electricity giants” had individual bonus claims of 30 to 40 million francs.
Axpo does not comment on the number of 15 dealers. However, the company denies that a wage of 30 to 40 million francs is possible for individual employees. “The claim that there are tens of millions of earnings-related payments is false,” says a spokesperson.
Conversely, however, this statement also means that fees up to CHF 9.9 million are not excluded.
Unthinkable for most companies
It is unusual and unthinkable for many other companies that at Axpo some employees earn more than group management members. A former executive of the electricity company explains the oddity to Sunday’s view, saying that Axpo is a largely cantonal public company, but competing with private companies like Glencore and the like in the fight for the best energy and raw materials. “Therefore, Axpo also has to pay comparable fees. Because these people don’t come to work for a sandwich.”
Is Axpo in the same league as Glencore? The media office does not see this as a compliment and is defending itself against this analogy. “We refer ourselves to companies in the electrical industry,” emphasizes a spokesperson.
A look at the LinkedIn professional network shows that some employees in the Axpo commerce department actually work at Alpiq or BKW. At least the former employers are called BP, Mercuria, Trafigura, Vitol or Glencore. There are also global financial institutions such as JP Morgan, UBS and Zurich Insurance.
The variety of workplaces is also impressive: only some of the Axpo employees are at home in the quiet chamber of commerce in Baden AG. Others are based across continental Europe and also in London, New York and Singapore.