Continental’s supervisory board has elected former BMW and Ford PAG executive Wolfgang Reitzle as chairman. He is chairman of Linde AG.

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Wolfgang Schäfer was named to Conti’s executive board from 1 January and will head finance, controlling, IT and law. José Avila will also join the board and head the powertrain division.


Schäfer is currently group CFO of Behr and Avila general manager of Delphi’s diesel systems unit.


Reuters noted that Schäfer’s appointment to the debt-laden partsmaker ends an almost year-long vacancy at the finance chief position.


He will have to grapple with debt to be refinanced amounting to EUR3.5bn (US$5.23bn) next year and may also have to arrange a capital increase, the news agency noted.


The company has been pushing for a capital increase worth EUR1.5bn to help reduce its EUR10bn debt pile, which it took on to buy auto electronics company VDO from Siemens.


Company sources expect the capital hike to come in early 2010, the report added.

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