BERLIN -- Engineering giant Siemens (IW 1000/34) announced late Saturday that chief executive Peter Loescher was to be fired after failing to get the company back on track.
The company said it would "decide on the early departure of the President and CEO" and the appointment of his replacement at a meeting Wednesday.
The company is due to report its third-quarter results next Thursday.
Loescher, 55, has led the company since 2007, but his pending departure comes just a few days after the surprise announcement of a profit warning.
Last Thursday, it said it no longer expected to reach a profit margin of at least 12% by the 2014 business year.
Already in May, it trimmed its full-year targets as it posted mixed second-quarter numbers, with a boost in orders but problems in the areas of revenues and profit.
After Thursay's news, Loescher was still insisting he wanted to finish the job he had started.
"I have a contract until 2017 and Siemens more than ever needs a captain," he said in an interview published in Saturday's edition of the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung. He was not the kind of person to abandon ship, he added.
The company's supervisory board however, chaired by Gerhard Cromme, has decided to put him ashore.
Loescher, an Austrian, was the first person recruited from outside the company to run the business. Saturday's statement said his replacement would be chosen from the existing managing board.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2013
