FRANKFURT/DUESSELDORF (Reuters) - RWE (DE:RWEG) boss Peter Terium will become the chief executive of the group's retail, renewables and networks unit that is to be listed later this year, a job that will hand him control over the ailing utility's remaining growth businesses.
Germany's second largest utility said in December it would pool its healthy units into a new entity and list about 10 percent of it in an initial public offering scheduled for late 2016, responding to an ongoing sector crisis that has hit profits and shares.
Dutchman Terium, 52, will assume responsibility for the new entity on April 1 and continues to serve as CEO RWE AG until the IPO, the group said following a meeting of its supervisory board on Thursday, confirming an earlier report by Reuters.
"We have a lot of work to do before the new subsidiary will be listed on the stock market," Terium said in a statement.
"My top priority during this period as CEO of both companies will be to shape the separation process that is necessary for the IPO in a responsible manner," he added.
Following the IPO, deputy CEO and Chief Operating Officer Rolf Martin Schmitz will become the CEO of RWE AG, which will comprise the group's struggling power plant business as well as energy trading.
The supervisory board also unanimously approved RWE's proposal to suspend the 2015 dividend for ordinary shares and pay 0.13 euros per preferred share, suggesting municipal shareholders, which have four of the 20 seats, gave their consent after initial resistance.