AkzoNobel Sets Nov. 30 Extraordinary Meeting on Axanzo Name and Final Board Seats

Shareholders will vote to adopt the Axanzo N.V. name and seat three non-executive directors ahead of the Axalta merger’s expected early 2027 close.

AkzoNobel N.V. (AMS: AKZA; OTCMKTS: AKZOY) will hold an extraordinary general meeting Nov. 30 at which shareholders will vote on renaming the company that emerges from its planned merger with Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE: AXTA) and on the last three appointments to the combined company’s board, AkzoNobel announced Oct. 16.

The meeting is one of the final corporate steps before two of the major refinish coatings suppliers to collision repair facilities combine into a single company. Shareholders of both companies approved the roughly $25 billion all-stock merger of equals Aug. 5, leaving regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions as the main hurdles.

The first proposal would amend the combined company’s articles of association to adopt the name Axanzo N.V., which the companies unveiled Oct. 15. Axanzo is expected to trade under the ticker symbol AXZ on Euronext Amsterdam and the New York Stock Exchange after closing.

The remaining proposals would appoint Denise Johnson, Stephan Tanda and Robert Schuchna as non-executive directors. The companies named the three Aug. 31 to fill the final seats on the combined company’s 11-member board, which will be chaired by Axalta board chair Rakesh Sachdev. Johnson is a group president at Caterpillar; Tanda retired as president and CEO of AptarGroup Sept. 1; and Schuchna is a partner at Cevian Capital and already sits on AkzoNobel’s supervisory board. When CollisionWeek reported the appointments, the companies said the three would be put before shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting later this year.

The companies said Oct. 15 that they now expect the merger to close in early 2027, after earlier guiding to the end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027.