• RWE AG will no longer exist as a holding and will be changed into an operating company

• Structures to become leaner, bureaucracy reduced

• Many executive board and supervisory board committees within the Group to be dissolved

• All locations to remain unaffected

The Supervisory Board today approved the proposal of the Executive Board of RWE AG to transform the management holding into an operating company and to merge most of the German RWE companies within it.

The massive transformation of the energy market in recent years, and in RWE’s core markets in particular, have posed major challenges for RWE and the company has to be able to adapt accordingly. For this reason, RWE began as far back as 2012 to align the management of business areas along the value chain, independent of legal entities. The change in management structure that has now been decided upon, as well as the change of RWE AG from a management holding to an operating company, supports the further development and streamlining of this management model. In line with this, the functional management will be assumed by operating Board members (Chief Operating Officers) in the RWE AG management team, who will be responsible for Conventional Power Generation, Retail, Grid and Renewables. These four COOs on the RWE AG Board will also be responsible for the respective business areas that already exist. The current COO position that covers all business areas will cease to exist. Thus, there will ultimately be seven top management functions instead of the current eight – and at the same time the RWE AG Executive Board will be aligned more closely to the operating business. In addition, the board committees and management boards of the integrated companies will cease to exist, although this does not necessarily mean their management responsibilities will change. Details of implementation will be decided upon in the coming months. The changes will be implemented by 1 January 2017. The new RWE AG will be very closely aligned to its customers and to the operating business.

Peter Terium, CEO of RWE AG, explains: “Back in March we announced that we would look closely at the Group structures in Germany in order to develop a plan for a more efficient structure. The Supervisory Board gave us the go-ahead for this plan today in its extraordinary meeting.” Terium adds: “These changes are further milestones on the path towards making RWE fit for the new energy world and to becoming one RWE.”

“Country Chairs” are part of this restructuring process. They will be responsible for steering and optimising country-wide and overarching functional tasks. They will also be the central contact partners for our external stakeholders in the countries, such as government or regulatory bodies. Generally this role will be assumed in addition to existing tasks.

By pooling the RWE companies, RWE is reducing bureaucracy, making processes leaner and reinforcing cooperation within the company. “The new RWE AG will be faster and more flexible – as the far-reaching changes on the energy market demand. What we now need more than ever before is a strong operating core for the Group”, explains Terium. Management streamlining will particularly affect the bodies of fully owned RWE companies in Germany, where this plan will mean that seven of the previous ten supervisory board committees will no longer exist – including all associated administrative tasks, preparation and decision-making processes.

Being “One RWE” means reducing the number of companies in Germany through merging them. Within the new RWE AG, in particular the supply and networks business will be integrated, together with their employees, as will the service companies. The employees of RWE Vertrieb AG and RWE Deutschland AG will be integrated into RWE AG. Westnetz GmbH will remain an independent company as the law requires that generation, supply and grids must remain separate (unbundling). Companies such as RWE Group Business Services GmbH, RWE IT GmbH and RWE Effizienz GmbH will be integrated into RWE AG.

Currently, RWE Generation SE/ RWE Power AG, RWE Innogy GmbH and RWE Supply & Trading GmbH are not affected by the merging process with RWE AG. RWE Generation SE will be integrated into RWE Power AG which will be renamed RWE Generation AG. These companies will remain legally independent, but will be steered by one COO at RWE AG respectively. The trading business will continue to be represented on the Executive Board by the CEO of RWE AG. Peter Terium: “I’m convinced that our RWE should remain positioned along the entire value chain – the new structure of the Board reflects this. We are one RWE and we want to stay that way. But without change, we cannot make the Group future-proof. Now is the time to pull even closer together.”


The structure of the new RWE AG at a glance

Functional management structure (with effect from 1 January 2017) – RWE companies to be merged as well as largest companies under the RWE AG umbrella.