Reports: Conti Execs Fear Contracts Will Follow Neumann out the Door

Continental AG said contracts, customers and employees could be lost if Dr Karl-Thomas Neumann is pushed out of his chief executive position. Quoting a document submitted to representatives of supervisory board members, Dow Jones Newswires reported that the group’s communications committee for management said: “We know that some of our customers are considering moving their business to rivals…We also run the risk of the attrition of further managers, at all levels, and the company losing its attractiveness as an employer.”

Continental AG said contracts, customers and employees could be lost if Dr Karl-Thomas Neumann is pushed out of his chief executive position. Quoting a document submitted to representatives of supervisory board members, Dow Jones Newswires reported that the group’s communications committee for management said: “We know that some of our customers are considering moving their business to rivals…We also run the risk of the attrition of further managers, at all levels, and the company losing its attractiveness as an employer.”

Neumann’s position was put under pressure last week when majority shareholder, Schaeffler Group, tabled a motion of no confidence in him. The motion failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority. The document also raised concerns that if Neumann were to go the 1.5 billion capital raising motion that was passed at the supervisory board meeting would be at risk.

Schaeffler spokesman Detlef Sieverdingbeck told Dow Jones “the company shares Continental’s interest in calming down the dispute between the two companies, but added that a precondition for this must be a relationship of trust at the top management level.”