BERLIN (Reuters) - Brake systems manufacturer Knorr Bremse said on Tuesday that its CEO Klaus Deller was stepping down with immediate effect due to conflicting views on leadership and cooperation, sending its shares down.
Shares in Knorr Bremse fell 6.1 percent by 1246 GMT.
Deller, 57, who took the job in September after having been an executive board member since 2009, guided the company during it its initial public offering (IPO), Germany's second-biggest stock market debut last year.
The supervisory board has already initiated the search for a successor, it said in a statement, adding that the remaining members of the executive board would jointly take on Deller's responsibilities.
In 2014, German engineering group Schaeffler dumped Deller as designated CEO without giving reasons.
"The Supervisory Board stands fully behind the successful business strategy of Knorr-Bremse AG. Current business trading is fully in line with expectations," Knorr Bremse said in a statement.
The company which was included in the German midcap MDAX index in March reported EBITDA of 1.18 billion euros ($1.32 billion) in 2018 and expected EBITDA margin between 18 and 19 percent in 2019.
"I regard the CEO exit as surprising," Ingo Schachel, an analyst at Commerzbank said, adding that he did not believe that the exit had to do with its financial performance or strategy.
($1 = 0.8913 euros)
(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Tassilo Hummel)
