DaimlerChrysler is set for a management reshuffle that will see changes at ailing US arm Chrysler, a new head of Mercedes luxury cars and a new group finance chief, newspapers reported on Tuesday.
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A company spokesman declined to comment to the Reuters news agency on the reshuffle, which could be announced as early as Wednesday.
Reuters said the changes at DaimlerChrysler would renew chief executive Juergen Schrempp’s team as he battles to revive Chrysler, key to its share price performance, and lines up potential contenders for the top job at the world’s fifth-biggest carmaker.
Schrempp, 59, has a contract that runs until April 2005 but company sources have said they expect his contract to be extended for another year after the annual shareholder meeting on April 7 and that he will stay in his post until 2007.
According to Reuters, the Financial Times cited sources close to the company as saying that the group’s supervisory board would appoint Chrysler chief operating officer Wolfgang Bernhard as Mercedes head at a meeting on Wednesday, replacing Juergen Hubbert who is retiring.
The board would also confirm the appointment of Bodo Uebber, head of DaimlerChrysler financial services, as chief finance officer, the FT reportedly said.
Uebber was promoted to the executive board last year as designated successor to Manfred Gentz, who will retire at the end of 2004.
German newspaper Handelsblatt cited company sources as saying that Bernhard would be succeeded as number two at Chrysler by Tom LaSorda, the manufacturing chief hired from General Motors in 2000.
Reuters said that DaimlerChrysler on Thursday will provide details of a €700 million- ($US892 million) drop in 2003 operating profit excluding one-off items, and say whether Chrysler met its break-even target.
