DaimlerChrysler AG's chief Dieter Zetsche called on the giant carmaker's shareholders Thursday to agree to bring its merger with US auto group Chrysler formally to an end and to back a change in the company's name to just Daimler AG, according to dpa. The extraordinary meeting in Berlin of the Stuttgart-based company's stockholders coincided with the release of data showing sales of its flagship Mercedes Benz cars jumping by 7 per cent in September. "The strength of our brands is one of our most valuable assets," Dieter Zetsche told about 4,600 of the company's shareholders attending the meeting. "Clearly, one of our central tasks is to maintain and enhance that strength," he said, with Daimler in future to focus on its core German car business. "No other automobile brand shines as brightly as the Mercedes star," Zetsche said, with the decision to drop Chrysler from its company name helping to mark a new start for the Stuttgart-based automaker after ending what was once billed as "a marriage made in heaven." The troubled tie-up with Chrysler came to an end in August when DaimlerChrysler sold off an 80.1-per-cent stake in its former US Chrysler offshoot to the US investor Cerberus for about 5.5 billion euros (7.8 billion dollars). Thursday's vote to accept the change to Daimler came despite a push by a group of shareholders to include Benz as part of the automaker's corporate name in recognition of the leading role played by Carl Friedrich Benz in the development of the German car industry. In 1926, Benz's company merged with Gottlieb Daimler's group to form an auto group, which was to become the owner of what is now one of the world's most recognized luxury brands. "The group name 'Daimler' clearly indicates that we are writing a new chapter of our history, while at the same time continuing our tradition as the inventor of the automobile. And this rich heritage will remain an essential part of our identity - of our DNA, so to speak," Zetsche said. "We're combining our proud origins and a bright future - honouring our long tradition and harnessing our pioneering spirit," Zetsche said. "The name Daimler is an expression of this dual identity." While Daimler is to retain a 19.9-per-cent holding in Chrysler, Thursday's shareholder meeting will formally mark the end of the 1998 merger with the US automaker and the Stuttgart-based group's ambitions to build a Welt AG or World Inc with an empire spanning Asia to the US and Europe. A new Daimler company logo is to be unveiled following the meeting, with the company quickly launching an operation to remove DaimlerChrysler from the company's sites around the world. The total cost of the changeover is expected to run to several million euros and is expected to last several months. DaimlerChrysler paid the giant US carmaker Ford Motor Co 20 million dollars to buy the rights to the Daimler name. In August, the German carmaker said the break-up of its corporate marriage with US auto group Chrysler would cost the company 2.5 billion euros this year. After an initial burst of optimism, the 36-billion-dollar merger between Daimler and Chrysler began to sour as Chrysler struggled to make headway in the fiercely competitive US car market, as a result sending DaimlerChrysler's share price tumbling. At one point, the group's market value was almost halved, sparking stockholder anger that the group's ambitious global expansion had failed to live up to company promises. More recently, investors have demonstrated their confidence in the German carmaker's future as a single entity by boosting its share price. DaimlerChrysler shares rose by 8.7 per cent last month, consequently turning the company's stock into one of the best performers on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. However, the shares edged down 0.3 per cent to 73.05 euros as shareholders voted at the meeting in Berlin in lacklustre morning trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange. The end of the merger with Chrysler also essentially took Daimler back to where it was before it launched its plans to build a global business empire. The deal to sell off of Chrysler to New York-based Cerberus came three years after DaimlerChrysler dramatically pulled out of an alliance with Japan's debt-ridden Mitsubishi Motors Corp. The tie-up with Mitsubishi and the merger with Chrysler formed key pillars of former DaimlerChrysler chief Juergen Schrempp's push to transform the company into a global corporation.
