Daimler-Chrysler crisis

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From Sundays's Washington Post at:

http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/world/europe/A2243-2000Dec30.html

The original Schrempp interview is in the Saturday edition of
Stuttgarter Nachrichten, p. 1 an 3

Accessible two weeks through www.stuttgarter-nachrichten.de


German Parent Predicts Years of Chrysler Losses

 By Rajiv Narayana
Bloomberg News
Sunday, December 31, 2000; Page A14

STUTTGART, Germany, Dec. 30 -- The head of DaimlerChrysler told a German
newspaper that it will take years for the company's Chrysler unit to
turn a profit.


Chrysler could become profitable again in "two, three, four years,"
DaimlerChrysler AG chief executive Juergen Schrempp said in an interview
with the newspaper Stuttgarter Nachrichten. "The goal is to one day
reinstate American management at Chrysler."


DaimlerChrysler spokesman Michael Pfister confirmed that Schrempp spoke
with the newspaper. Pfister declined to comment on details of the
article, saying he hadn't read it and wasn't present at the interview.


David Healy, an analyst at Burnham Securities Inc., said "that kind of a
period" -- two to four years -- for Chrysler "continuing in the red is a
lot longer than anybody had forecast so far."


Chrysler lost $512 million in the third quarter and has said it expects
a fourth-quarter loss of $1.3 billion. The unit's chief executive,
Dieter Zetsche, is cutting prices and spending and closing plants.


"Chrysler has spun out of control and will take a very long time to get
back on the road," said Lehman Brothers analyst Nicholas Lobaccaro. "The
depths of the problems have finally been recognized in Stuttgart."


Schrempp said it would be "criminal to even think about" selling
Chrysler, the newspaper said. His Stuttgart-based company, the world's
fifth-largest carmaker, bought Chrysler for $35 billion in November
1998.


In November, DaimlerChrysler fired Chrysler chief executive James Holden
and replaced him with Zetsche because of the unit's mounting losses.