DaimlerChrysler to Reshuffle Group Managers

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.

A company spokesman declined to comment on the reshuffle, which could be announced as early as Wednesday, but denied a Japanese newspaper report that the group was also planning changes at Mitsubishi Motors, in which it has a 37 percent stake.

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. 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.

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. Hubbert was the CEO of GPWC, the company set up by Formula One carmakers to plan for a possible new Grand Prix series in 2008.

The board would also confirm the appointment of Bodo Uebber, head of DaimlerChrysler financial services, as chief finance officer, the FT 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 the ailing US mass carmaker by Tom LaSorda, Chrysler's manufacturing chief hired from General Motors in 2000.

On Thursday, DaimlerChrysler will provide details of a 700 million-euro ($892 million) drop in 2003 operating profit excluding one-off items, and say whether Chrysler met its break-even target.