Daimler announced on Monday it was preparing to revamp the company’s structure to better prepare it for the future of electric vehicles. Analysts say the move by the German group would be the first time a big car manufacturer has properly restructured its business for the new era of shared, electric and self-driving vehicles.
The Stuttgart-based parent of Mercedes-Benz will take its “first steps” to restructure, by investing more than €100m to create two new legal entities, one to house Cars & Vans and another for Trucks & Buses. The restructuring plan would give Daimler’s businesses more autonomy so they can react more quickly as the industry is upended by self-driving technology, battery-powered cars and sharing services, said Marc-René Tonn, analyst at Warburg Research.
Daimler chief executive Dieter Zetsche said: “Whoever aims for sustainable competitiveness and profitability must continuously evolve and adapt to rapidly changing surroundings — technologically, culturally and also structurally.”
If it is approved by shareholders in 2019 it would turn Daimler into a holding company overseeing three units — the two new divisions and the existing financial services group.
The move resembles Sergio Marchionne’s attempts to “purify” the balance sheet at Fiat Chrysler, which in 2010 spun off its industrial business, CNH, and its luxury carmaker, Ferrari.
Daimler specifically said it “does not plan to divest any of its divisions,”
Daimler also said it would invest €3bn into its pension fund, a move analysts read as a quid pro quo to get labour unions on board with the new structure. “The instinct at the unions is that ‘we are better together,’” said one analyst. “This structure makes a spin-off easier to do, but they are a long way from acknowledging it.”
Submitted October 16, 2017 at 04:37PM by wanmoar http://ift.tt/2yrYyNW
