Siemens CEO set to quit firm

Munich: Siemens chief executive Peter Loescher is to

leave the company, four years before the end of his contract, after the German engineering group this week issued its second profit

warning this year. Siemens said in a statement late on Saturday that at a

meeting on July 31, the supervisory board would

pass the decision on Loescher’s early departure. “In addition, it will decide on the appointment of a member of the managing board as President and

CEO,” it added. Siemens, among Germany’s three biggest companies by market value, did not pro

vide further details. Two people familiar with the matter earlier told Reuters

that the majority of Siemens’ 20- member supervisory board favored finance chief Joe Kaeser as replacement for Loescher. The company declined to comment. There have been persistent rumors over the past year

that Kaeser, who was already on Siemens’ man

agement board when Loescher joined in 2007, had his eye on Loescher’s job, though the two have repeatedly said they worked

well together. Late last year, when questioned about the rumors, the CFO said the two complemented each other like

“light and dark”. When Loescher became CEO six years ago as the first company outsider to take the helm at Siemens, he was presented as a hero who would lead Siemens out of a massive bribery scandal that had tarnished its image and

its finances. But after tackling that task,

Loescher started losing credibility as he repeatedly misjudged demand develop

ment in its main markets. A bellwether of Germany’s economy whose products range from gas turbines to fast trains and hearing aids, Siemens is suffering from

the stuttering global demand that saw German exports fall the most since

late 2009 in May. In addition, Siemens’ earnings have been hit repeated

ly by one- time charges related to project delays

and other issues. Loescher was forced to put on the back- burner a strategy to increase annual sales by about a third to 100 bil

lion euros last year, announcing instead a plan to save 6 billion euros over two years to compete with rivals such as General Electric Co.