When Hans-Ueli Vogt was booed

From the gloom of an aborted political career, Hans-Ueli Vogt (52) galloped into the spotlight of a Federal Council candidacy. The Zurich resident is on the SVP ticket – and the public wonders: Does the law professor have what it takes to lead a department of several thousand people? Is the ex-state councilor from the industrial district Albert Rösti (55) becoming dangerous, the politically highly networked favorite with a federal Bern stable smell?

The upcoming faction hearings will likely also be about Vogt’s technical and rhetorical skills: as a magistrate, could he sell the masses a painful but necessary bill?

His role in the Sika case, which is currently doing the rounds again, may not be very helpful. One remembers: a few years ago an ugly takeover battle broke out around the Swiss chemical company.

In the middle of the noise

The reason for the dispute: the Burkard founding family wanted to sell their shares of about 17 percent and the majority of the voting rights it guaranteed to the French industrial giant Saint-Gobain – against the wishes of the Sika management. A fierce argument ensued, in which – through his foundation – even Microsoft founder Bill Gates (67) was involved.
The public sneered at the multimillion-dollar lawyer fodder: Are there heirs at work wanting to sell the traditional Swiss company, founded in 1910, abroad for profit?

Hans-Ueli Vogt was at the center of the tumult, on the side of the Burkards, for whom he served as an expert. He had “clarified certain legal issues for the family,” Vogt said during an appearance. It is not uncommon for university lecturers to also work as advisers. Vogt lists 19 such pledges on its website.

However, two of his performances at Sika General Assemblies in 2016 and 2017, the recordings of which Vogt posted on his website, are the subject of discussion. The professor seems remarkably emotional about it; in a passage of his 2016 presentation, he addressed Sika’s top management directly and confirmed that they were “walking on thin ice”. “I wonder how well they sleep,” he says, letting an unmistakable mumble through the hall.

Comparison with a pistol

The following year, at the AGM, Vogt talks himself into a frenzy when he accuses management of using the stock sale restriction against the Burkard family. Because the possibility of this limitation was only possible thanks to Burkard. The SVP politician has come to a delicate statement: “It is as if someone who has been given a weapon is aiming it at the person who gave it to him.” The comparison with the threat of arms goes too far. There is cheering, but also applause.

Vogt says today: “It was about presenting a complex legal issue clearly. With the comparison I have shown that the limitation of transferability is applied against the main shareholder, although he introduced it to protect his position. Such an interpretation seemed to me questionable given the general circumstances. I thought the comparison was appropriate at the time.”

In any case, the Burkards missed their original target across the lanes. An agreement was only reached in 2018: Saint-Gobain was allowed to invest in Sika, but with a much smaller share and without a majority vote.

So Vogt gave the wrong advice? He says: “As an expert, I commented on individual legal issues for the Burkard family and their attorneys. I did not give the family any legal advice; that is always the job of the lawyers. In addition, my report related to legal issues that played no role in the decision of the Zug district court.”