Metro to Appoint Wuerth Manager Greubel as CEO on Monday

(Bloomberg) -- Metro AG, the German wholesaler that has been without a permanent chief executive since the start of the year, is set to appoint Steffen Greubel to the post on Monday.

Greubel will take the helm at Metro from May 1, if approved by the supervisory board next week, Metro said in a statement late Friday. He is currently on the management board of privately held Wuerth Group, a German maker of screws, adhesives and other fasteners.

Olaf Koch stepped down as CEO on Dec. 31 after a tenure spent honing Metro into a wholesale specialist. He oversaw the split from its consumer electronics business, now separately listed as Ceconomy AG, and divested retail operations in China as well as its hypermarket chain in Germany.

When this strategy faced delays and Metro’s shares fell, Koch fended off a takeover attempt by Daniel Kretinsky -- although the Czech billionaire still holds close to half of Metro’s shares. An effort to team up Metro with U.S. food distributor Sysco Corp. also fell through.

Metro, currently run by a pair of interim co-CEOs, will report first-quarter earnings on Feb. 10.

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