Reuters reported that fresh from axing half of his management board this week, ThyssenKrupp chief executive Mr Heinrich Hiesinger is expected to ring in a new era at Germany's top steelmaker when he presents results on Tuesday.
The CEO has had his hands full cleaning up some thorny problems left by his predecessor Ekkehard Schulz including an ill-fated and costly foray into the Americas that is expected to have caused a drop in fiscal fourth-quarter profits.
Losses at the steel mills in the United States and Brazil, bundled in the Steel Americas business, are expected to have piled up to about EUR 1 billion (USD 1.3 billion) in the full year through the end of September.
Aside from the Americas quagmire, Thyssen cited recent headline-grabbing corruption allegations and cartel probes as reasons for the management reshuffle and said it needed a change in its leadership system and leadership culture.
JP Morgan analyst Alessandro Abate said the departure of Juergen Claassen, Olaf Berlien and Edwin Eichler was a clear sign of a real shift of power toward Hiesinger and his relatively new finance chief Guido Kerkhoff.
The reshuffle comes at a tough time for steel companies, with business hit by a slowdown in demand for cars, appliances and new buildings, with little hope for a recovery soon.
ThyssenKrupp has been selling assets to focus more on engineering products, like car parts and plant construction, to reduce its dependence on steel.
The management shakeout also helps Hiesinger cut ties with the past, almost two years after taking the helm, since Berlien and Eichler were seen as ex CEO Schulz's crown princes.
