AUGUST 23, 2003

DaimlerChrysler pays off legal challengers

The DaimlerChrysler car company - the parent company of McLaren - has agreed to pay $300m to settle a $22bn class action lawsuit brought against the company by Chrysler shareholders. In settling the dispute the company did not admit liability and it continues to fight another case for $8bn from US investor Kirk Kerkorian, who alleges that the German company lied to shareholders by telling them the 1998 deal between Daimler-Benz and Chrysler of the US was a merger rather than a takeover. Kerkorian claims he would not have accepted the deal if it had been made clear that it was a takeover, because he would have demanded a higher price. The suit threatens to unseat Jurgen Schrempp, chief executive of DaimlerChrysler, who precipitated the action by telling The Financial Times that it had always been intended for Chrysler to become a division of the main company.

The $220m will come from an insurance policy.