Daimler Chief Financial Officer Leaves Mercedes-Benz Builder to Modernize

Daimler AG's CFO Bodo Uebber will leave the luxury car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz. This is the first high level start after the German manufacturer has chosen Ola Kallenius to take the general direction next year.

Uebber, 59, has informed the chairman of the supervisory board, Manfred Bischoff, that he "is not trying to extend his current term," said Daimler in a statement on Sunday. He did not provide a reason for the planned departure.

Uebber's contract expires in December 2019. He joined Daimler's board of directors in 2003 and assumed financial responsibility a year later.

The change in direction comes at a critical juncture for the world's best-selling luxury car manufacturer and the largest commercial vehicle manufacturer in terms of turnover. Uebber was one of the main architects of the new structure of the Daimler Group, created to give more independence to its cars, trucks and mobility services. Shareholders are expected to vote on the changes at the Annual General Meeting in May of next year.

Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche defended last week the strategic rationale behind the company's biggest overhaul in 10 years. He told reporters in Paris that the proposed redesign is expected to increase efficiency and help reverse a stock slide that has erased one-fifth of the company's value this year.

Investors hesitated over the new structure and called for deeper changes, including separate lists for the truck division or part of the mobility services operations. Daimler officials have denied plans to completely divest any subsidiary but have left the door open for a partial sale. The redesign was also criticized for its cost, estimated at about 1 billion euros ($ 1.2 billion) and for the little instant advantage it enjoys on the valuation of the company.

Uebber was considered a leadership candidate for a holding company that groups together three separate Daimler units. But the decision taken last month by the supervisory board to give 49-year-old Kallenius the same dual responsibility that Zetsche assumed as CEO and head of the Mercedes-Benz car unit, however, said that this scenario would not happen.