Hermes, the UK pension fund manager, is leading a group of international pension funds calling for the early exit of Siemens chairman Gerhard Cromme, saying he should shoulder the blame for the "messy" departure of the company's former chief executive last summer.

At the German electronics group's AGM in Munich today, Hermes director Hans-Christoph Hirt read a statement on behalf of several funds including APG Asset Management, which manages the Dutch government workers' pension fund, the California State Teachers Retirement System, Scandinavian financial group Nordea, and the UK's Railways Pension Scheme.