The chief executive of German rail operator Deutsche Bahn has unexpectedly stepped down, leaving the state-owned group after eight years in charge, Deutsche Bahn said in a statement on Monday.
It said he was departing at his own request and did not elaborate.
A supervisory board source told Reuters that a disagreement over Grube’s contract had played a role in the decision.
The board wanted to extend his contract by two years this month, but he had sought a three-year extension, the person said.
Deutsche Bahn, which has almost 20 billion euros ($21 billion) of debt, has repeatedly fallen short of its targets since Grube took over in 2009 and last year received a 1 billion euro injection of taxpayer funds.
The group had planned to partially privatise British subsidiary Arriva and its logistics subsidiary Schenker to raise money to service debts but put the plan on ice in November due to Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.
Deutsche Bahn said its finance chief Richard Lutz would act as CEO until a successor was named.
($1 = 0.9401 euros)
(This article has not been edited by DNA’s editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
Source: dnaindia.com