Following the sale of Chrysler, DaimlerChrysler has announced that the name of DaimlerChrysler AG is to be changed to Daimler AG. A decision on this is to be taken by the shareholders at an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting probably in autumn 2007.
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In a statement the company said the board of management of the new company will be reduced to six members. Tom LaSorda, Eric Ridenour and Tom Sidlik will leave.
There will no longer be a separate board position for procurement in the new Daimler AG. In the future, all procurement activities will be directly coordinated between the divisions. Within the Board of Management, Bodo Uebber will additionally assume overall responsibility for procurement.
The leadership teams of the Mercedes Car Group, the Truck Group and Financial Services will remain unchanged, as will the teams in the vans and buses businesses.
DaimlerChrysler CEO, Dieter Zetsche said; “We’ve done our homework in our corporate functions and in all of our divisions. As a result of our strategic review, we have a well-defined roadmap to lead us into a good future.”
The company said that the Mercedes Car Group will generate a return on sales of at least 7% this year, with higher rates to follow in the coming years. The Truck Group will achieve an average return on sales of 7% over the cycle as of 2008. This represents a return on net assets of approximately 30%. The Financial Services division aims to earn a return on equity of more than 14%.
Zetsche said that future prospects for the group are promising. “We have a strong starting position. We have an above-average financial power.” Future growth will come from further expansion in the core business, and exploiting new market opportunities on a regional basis. In addition the company said will continue development of innovative, customer-oriented and tailor-made services and activities, pursuing opportunities both up and down the value chain, and strengthen leadership in sustainable, responsible and environmentally friendly technologies.
By focusing on these three areas, the statement said that Daimler’s full potential is to be exploited and enterprise value is to be increased further through profitable and sustainable growth. Daimler intends to do this on its own, while continuing to benefit from opportunities of scale with Chrysler.
