DaimlerChrysler to revamp Mitsubishi

13 April 2004

STUTTGART – DaimlerChrysler’s executive for commercial vehicles, Eckhard Cordes, is slated for a board of directors post at the troubled Japanese partner Mitsubishi Motors, company sources said Tuesday in Stuttgart.

Sources, apparently confirming Japanese media reports about Cordes, said it was seen as a logical step since he is now involved in DaimlerChrysler’s activities in Asia overall and has been active in the efforts to revamp Fuso, Mitsubishi’s truck division.

But the sources said this did not spell a role for Cordes in the business operations at Mitsubishi Motors.

DaimlerChrysler, with a 37 percent stake in Mitsubishi Motors, currently has four seats in the 10-member board of directors at the Japanese company.

The reports come while DaimlerChrysler managers, led by Smart division head Andreas Renschler, are preparing their new plan for revamping Mitsubishi Motors.

The plan is to be presented at Mitsubishi’s shareholders meeting in Tokyo on 30 April.

Renschler, 45, is being touted in media reports as the possible successor to 61-year-old Rolf Eckrodt as the next head of Mitsubishi.

Eckrodt was sent to the Japanese firm in 2001 to try to help turn it around and became chief executive there in 2002. His contract expires at the end of 2004.

Japan’s business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun said that under the revamping plans, Mitsubishi is to receive new infusions that could go as high as YEN 520 billion (EUR 4.1 billion) in two phases during the next few years in which DaimlerChrysler’s stake would be boosted to a majority holding.

In the first phase, DaimlerChrysler would be investing YEN 200 to 250 billion with Mitsubishi adding YEN 120 billion. Then, in a second step depending on developments, DaimlerChrysler would invest a further YEN 150 billion, the Japanese paper said.

DPA

Subject: German news