Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Report: DaimlerChrysler CEO Optimistic

Associated Press 06.25.07, 6:31 AM ET


DaimlerChrysler AG's chief executive said that "the next years will be good" for the newly unbound Daimler AG and indicated that the risk of a takeover has diminished, according to an interview published Monday.

DaimlerChrysler (nyse: DCX - news - people ) agreed last month to sell 80.1 percent of its stake in money-losing U.S. unit Chrysler to the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, paving the way for a streamlined Daimler to concentrate on its luxury Mercedes brand and truck business.

"The next years will be good," CEO Dieter Zetsche was quoted as saying in the daily Tagesspiegel.

"We are not thinking of a further product offensive with brand-new vehicles," he added. "We are well placed in the breadth of our very young range of models and are now concentrating on becoming even better with the successors to individual models."

Zetsche also said that Daimler is now more firmly in control of its own future.

"The risk of others exerting influence on the company, in an unwanted way, is now significantly smaller," he said.

"The doubling of the market value already has happened and so (it) is no longer a sausage that would be worth snatching at for financial investors," Zetsche said.

DaimlerChrysler shares were down nearly 1.9 percent at 66.45 euros ($89.32) Monday in an overall lower Frankfurt market.

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