Krupp To Give Up Control

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31335, 4 April 1967, Page 17

Krupp To Give Up Control

(From Our Own Reporter) ESSEN, Air. 3. Baron Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach has announced that his family would relinquish control of its West German industrial empire when he retired, United Press International reported. In a speech to veteran employees at company headquarters in Essen, he said his son, Arndt, had agreed to “give up his inheritance” as part of a plan to make the firm a public corporation by >the end of next year. The West German Government recently agreed to guarantee about £25.7 million

to Krupp in loans if the family would begin selling stock in the company.

Mr Arndt Krupp, one of Germany’s best-known playboys, spends much of his time on the Riviera. It has long been reported that he has no interest in assuming control of the company. When the company goes public, Baron Krupp will remain as director, and his lieutenant, Mr Berthold Beltz, will stay on as general manager.

In accordance with the agrement worked out with the Government and the banks, 150 yean of family rule will end when Baron Krupp retires. He told his employees that the family accepted the agreement because tiie firm was running short of money. It apparently has financed

too many long-term export projects with short-term loans. Forty per cent of Krupps* exports go to the West European nations, 21 per cent to North and South America, and 10 per cent to the Communist Eastern European block.