STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Assa Abloy's (ST:ASSAb) Chief Executive Johan Molin is considering stepping down in 2018, the Swedish lockmaker said in a statement on Thursday.
The company, the world's biggest lockmaker, said the statement was issued "due to rumours in the market".
"Against this background, the board has begun the work on evaluating potential successors to Johan Molin and hasalso appointed an external recruitment consultant," Assa Abloy said.
Molin has been chief executive for nearly 12 years. He is one of the most highly regarded CEO's among Sweden's top firms and Assa's shares have sharply outperformed the Stockholm stock exchange's blue-chip index OMXS30 (OMXS30) with Molin at the helm.
He is currently also chairman at Swedish engineering group Sandvik (ST:SAND) and has been tipped as a possible candidate to become mobile telecom gear maker Ericsson's (ST:ERICb) next chairman.