Dieter Zetsche, DaimlerChrysler's chief executive, yesterday confirmed for the first time that the car group was in talks with potential buyers of its loss-making US business as he and senior directors were savagely attacked by shareholders for persisting with the disastrous 1998 merger.
Several of the 9,000 angry shareholders, gathered for a marathon annual meeting at Berlin's trade fair centre, called for his head and demanded a return to the name of DaimlerBenz because of the German group's tainted association with Chrysler.
But Mr Zetsche repeated the mantra that all options for Chrysler must be kept open as a posse of fund managers urged an immediate sale of the business that he claimed to have turned around when he ran it. It lost €1.12bn (£757m) last year.
Jürgen Grässlin of the shareholders' group KADC, which opposed the merger, said to loud applause: "If you'd listened to us, billions upon billions of euros would not have been flushed away." A colleague stood at the rostrum in a red t-shirt bearing the sign of a divided post-war Berlin: "You are now leaving the American sector."
Henning Gebhardt, head of German equities at DWS, the fund management arm of Deutsche Bank, once Daimler's biggest shareholder and now owning 4.4%, said: "If Chrysler is finally led before the divorce court judge, we would be very grateful. But what happens if you don't find a new bridegroom or if he demands a disproportionately high dowry?"
Mr Zetsche, who announced the possible disposal of Chrysler or a flotation on February 14, insisted the US arm's $1bn (£500m) restructuring, which includes the loss of 13,000 jobs, could restore profitability and produce a 2.9% return on sales by 2009. But he refused to say whether it would still be part of the group.
Reports in the US this week have indicated that Daimler is in talks with two private equity groups, Cerberus and Blackstone, and Canadian car-components company Magna about a sale for around $8bn, a fraction of the $36bn Daimler paid in 1998. The reports suggested Daimler would enter into exclusive negotiations with one of them by the end of this month, but investors are worried the price will be too low.
Hans-Richard Schmitz of small investors group DSW said: "Keeping Chrysler in the group is no option. What's lacking is the clear and rapid execution of the sale." He added that, with Chrysler "a permanent patient in the rehab clinic", Daimler itself could be a takeover target.
Hilmar Kopper bowed out after 17 years as chairman, continuing to praise the Chrysler takeover. He was attacked by Ekkehard Wenger, a long-standing critic, whose motion said the group was now known as DaimlerCrisis, the epitome of business failure.
The Würzburg academic and other investors, however, singled out Jürgen Schrempp, Mr Zetsche's predecessor and architect of the "marriage made in heaven," for their wrath. He was, one said, "the biggest destroyer of equity and jobs in the history of the group".
Daimler shares fell more than 1%.
