| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Clariant CEO quits on shock loss
ZURICH, Switzerland (Reuters) -- Clariant AG said on Wednesday its chief executive had quit after the surprise revelation of a 2002 loss and insisted it did not need to tap shareholders for fresh cash. The indebted Swiss specialty chemicals firm said it had appointed its former finance chief and vice chairman Roland Loesser to succeed Reinhard Handte in the top job after he stepped down at Tuesday's crisis board meeting. Handte had lost the confidence of investors after the firm's surprise 2002 loss of 648 million Swiss francs ($487 million), related to further writedowns on its 2000 acquisition of British chemical firm BTP -- the root of Clariant's problems. Clariant said in view of its own financial situation, market conditions and in the interest of shareholders it would not make a proposal for a capital increase at the forthcoming shareholders meeting. The investment community had feared Clariant might issue around 600 million Swiss francs ($450.5 million) to rebuild its finances. Clariant's shares have fallen by half in 2003. Loesser, a German, now faces the task of following through on a turnaround strategy at Switzerland's largest chemical firm, which includes divesting non-core businesses and slashing over 1,000 jobs in an effort to return it to profitability and cut its 3.5 billion net debt mountain. He started his professional life in the business administration department of Vereinigte Leichtmetallwerke in Bonn before moving to Swiss drugs group Sandoz in 1969, rising to the position of Sandoz U.S. chief financial officer in 1990. At Clariant, he was appointed chief financial officer in 1995 and held this position until 2001. He was a member of the board of directors. The firm has ample liquidity and says it is not in any breach of its loan terms with banks. Clariant is in talks with creditor banks over renegotiating some 2.1 billion francs in loans and a deal is seen being wrapped up in the second quarter. Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
