Mar 29 2009
At its extraordinary meeting today the Supervisory Board of ThyssenKrupp AG resolved to realign the Group. It decided to reorganize the five segments Steel, Stainless, Technologies, Elevator and Services into two divisions. The new Materials division will combine the activities of the current Steel, Stainless and Services segments. The new Technologies division will comprise the business activities of Technologies and Elevator. The goal is to concentrate the business and create a leaner, more efficient structure, including in the administrative areas. The Executive Board has been instructed by the Supervisory Board to implement this strategic reorganization by the beginning of the new fiscal year on October 1, 2009.
"With the strategic reorganization in two divisions we are concentrating on areas in which we combine innovative strength and technological expertise. At the same time we will speed up our decision-making processes and increase transparency. ThyssenKrupp will therefore be leaner, better and faster. With a more centralized structure we will be able to respond more quickly to the market and implement strategic measures more directly in the future," said the Executive Board Chairman of ThyssenKrupp AG, Dr. Ekkehard Schulz, at a press conference in Düsseldorf.
The Materials division will focus and strengthen the expansion of the Group's materials capabilities and materials services along the value chain. The Technologies division will focus and strengthen ThyssenKrupp's technological capabilities in the area of global megatrends. In both new divisions the focus will initially be on the structural optimization of individual business units.
The reorganization will be followed by an increased organizational centralization. ThyssenKrupp expects the restructuring of the Group resolved today to produce an effect of up to €500 million.
The strategic reorganization will involve personnel changes in the administrative areas and also in the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp AG. Jürgen H. Fechter and Dr. Karl-Ulrich Köhler are to stand down from the Executive Board by mutual agreement at March 31, 2009. They will continue to be available to the Group in an advisory capacity. No reappointment will be made for the position held by Dr. Wolfram Mörsdorf, whose term of office is due to end on April 14, 2009. Dr. Ulrich Middelmann, Vice Chairman of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp AG, will concentrate from April 1, 2009 until his departure at the close of the Annual General Meeting on January 21, 2010 on the implementation of the new Group structure and on the corporate program ThyssenKrupp PLUS. Dr. Alan Hippe will become Chief Financial Officer of ThyssenKrupp AG from April 1, 2009. Edwin Eichler will take charge of the Materials division, while Dr. Olaf Berlien will lead the Technologies division.
Against the background of the dramatic economic collapse in almost all countries and sectors, the Group is counting on responsibility and honesty in the discussion over possible job cuts. In view of a decline in annual crude steel output to the level of the early eighties, Schulz emphasized: "If we want to avoid compulsory redundancies in this situation, this underlines our social responsibility. But I cannot and will not guarantee that there will be no compulsory redundancies or site closures. That, too, is demanded by the honesty of a responsible businessman."