Andreas Renschler, head of DaimlerChrysler’s Smart cars division, is to prepare a rescue plan for Mitsubishi Motors but will not necessarily become its new boss, company sources told the Reuters news agency.
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The sources reportedly said that DaimlerChrysler, which owns a 37% stake in Mitsubishi Motors, would send Renschler to prepare a restructuring plan for the loss-making Japanese carmaker, but this did not mean he would replace chief executive Rolf Eckrodt, whose term runs out this year.
Reuters noted that Mitsubishi Motors said on Thursday it expected an operating loss of 105 billion yen ($US983 million) for the year to the end of March, instead of the 45 billion-yen loss forecast three months ago and added that newspapers have reported that DaimlerChrysler may be forced to pump up to 70 billion yen ($655 million) into Mitsubishi Motors as part of a 200 billion-yen bailout.
Eckrodt said earlier this week that Mitsubishi Motors shareholders would decide his future.
Reuters noted that German publication Manager Magazin said on Wednesday that Renschler would replace Eckrodt by the end of the year.
“Renschler has a completely free hand and can take half a dozen managers from Stuttgart with him,” one source told Reuters, adding that this did not mean any decision about Eckrodt’s successor had been made.
