MALMSTROM APPOINTED CHAIRMAN OF STINNES
Dr. Bernd Malmstr'm, the chief executive officer of Deutsche Bahn Cargo, has been appointed chairman of the board of management of Stinnes AG in a move that will cement Stinnes more closely to the Deutsche Bahn group.
Malmstr'm’s appointment as the head of Stinnes follows the announcement of the takeover of the company by Deutsche Bahn. He succeeds Dr. Wulf H. Bernotat, who had been the CEO of Stinnes since 1998,
Hartmut Mehdorn, CEO of the Deutsche Bahn group, and Diethelm Sack, the group’s chief financial officer, were appointed members of the supervisory board of Stinnes.
Malmstr'm said that Stinnes will help the freight transportation division of Deutsche Bahn reach the top league of international transportation and logistics service providers. Stinnes is also the parent company of Schenker, the international forwarder.
'With this freight transportation organization, Deutsche Bahn AG will take a leap across Germany's borders and forge an international network,” he said. “This will provide a strategic competitive edge, and at the same time, it will massively strengthen the position of rail transportation for cross-border services within Europe.'
Within the Deutsche Bahn group, Stinnes will be “the lead company for all the transportation and logistics activities,” the German railroad said.
The German competition authorities and the European Commission have approved the takeover of Stinnes by Deutsche Bahn. The transaction is now expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2003, a spokesman for Stinnes said.