The long wait for the new boss of OMV

We hear that shareholders, stakeholders and employees are already somewhat unsettled. Shared on May 20, 2025 Alfred Stern61, surprisingly announced that he would no longer be extending his contract as CEO. Stern announced his departure so early to ensure a proper handover of the farm.

After all, this is the first time in many years that an OMV boss has left the company without a lot of prior blows and punches.

Stern’s contract expires on August 31, 2026, enough time to find a successor, one would think. It was said again and again that the decision would be made soon. Names circulated and disappeared again. For example, ex-Borealis boss Thomas Gangl or the hapless ex-Lenzing CEO Stefan Doboczky. Also Christina VerchereCEO of the Romanian OMV-Petrom, was considered a candidate. However, things are unlikely to work out with the first woman as OMV boss; Verchere is not interested, it is rumored internally. It is currently setting up Europe’s largest gas project (“Neptune Deep”) in the Black Sea.

OMV supervisory board chairman Lutz Feldmann spoke to Reuters about a possible decision at the end of 2025. Because Stern provided information early, “we are not under time pressure.”

That is no longer true. It was generally expected that the supervisory board would present the new CEO at its meeting on Thursday – ten months after Stern’s announcement. But again nothing. It is not easy to find a candidate for a company of the size of OMV, but industry insiders are surprised at this “unusually lengthy search process”.

No soul comeback?

As you can hear, the headhunter Heidrick & Struggles do a few more laps. The state holding company ÖBAG is the largest shareholder with 31.5 percent, but (as in the past) has to coordinate the CEO with the 24.9 percent co-owner Adnoc (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) according to the syndicate agreement. ÖBAG did not want to comment on this to the KURIER.

We hear from the company that it is only thanks to the busy worker Stern, who has not switched to leaving mode but, on the contrary, wants to stay committed until his last day of work, that OMV has not yet had a management problem despite the Iran war, austerity package and realignment.

Stern’s professional life after OMV is still a mystery. He is already on the board of the US company Air Products. In April he is to be appointed to the supervisory board of the German agricultural chemicals and pharmaceutical company Bayer. The Austrian Paul Achleitner leaves the board after 24 years.

Incidentally, sources in Abu Dhabi report that ex-OMV boss Rainer Seele should not be allowed to join the OMV supervisory board. The reason is the value adjustments of 2.47 billion euros for Seele’s involvement in Russia. The confidant of Adnoc CEO Sultan Al Jaber heads the chemicals business at the Adnoc investment company XRG.

There is therefore already speculation as to whether Stern could stay on board the OMV.

IPO postponed

On Thursday, the OMV supervisory board also discussed the founding of Borouge Group International (BGI). The merger of the OMV subsidiary Borealis with Borouge and the takeover of Nova Chemicals will create the fourth largest chemicals and plastics group. The deal, which is worth billions, is scheduled to close at the end of March 2026 and progress is going according to plan. BGI’s IPO will be postponed to 2927.

In addition, an adjustment to BGI’s dividend was agreed. The OMV will therefore receive a distribution of 250 million US dollars (217 million euros) for 2026, instead of the previously assumed 500 million US dollars. The impact on the OMVThe company puts the dividend at around 0.6 to 0.7 euros per share.