BERLIN — DaimlerChrysler AG should be more profitable this year but still has work ahead to reinvigorate its marquee Mercedes-Benz product lineup, chief executive Dieter Zetsche said Wednesday.
The world's fifth biggest automaker also will stick with struggling compact brand Smart, Zetsche said in his first appearance as CEO at the company's annual shareholders meeting.
"We are not satisfied with last year's results," Zetsche told some 8,000 shareholders at the Berlin convention center. "We can only safeguard the future of our company and the jobs of our workers if we achieve profitable growth."
Zetsche got a much warmer reception than his predecessor, Juergen Schrempp, who was greeted last year with boos amid mounting problems at Mercedes Car Group — rising losses, a recall and problems with the Smart GmbH unit.
In a first for the company, Zetsche revealed his base salary — 1.5 million euros ($1.82 million), not counting bonus and stock-based compensation. Incorporated under German law, DaimlerChrysler has not been required to say how much the boss makes, unlike U.S. competitors General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co.
Still, shareholders — many of them holders of small stakes who came from across Germany — weren't afraid to question Zetsche and other executives about the company's performance or shortcomings.
Six years after Daimler-Benz's combination with Chrysler, a vocal minority still calls the decision a bad idea.
But Zetsche, who turned around Chrysler Group and succeeded Schrempp Jan. 1, said the combined company was doing well and predicted that profitability would grow through this year even as thousands of jobs are cut through buyouts, attrition and severance packages.
"In the past year, we posted record sales for both passenger cars and commercial vehicles. For the first time ever, we sold more than 4 million passenger cars," he said.
The company earned 2.8 billion euros ($3.4 billion) on revenue of 149.7 billion euros ($181.51 billion) in 2005, compared with profit of 2.5 billion euros on revenue of 142 billion euros in 2004. He said operating profit was 5.2 billion euros ($6.3 billion) last year.
That is expected to improve, he said. A precise outlook will be released April 27, when the German-American car maker releases first-quarter results.
DaimlerChrysler shares rose 0.25 percent to close at 47.44 euros ($57.49) on the Frankfurt exchange. Its U.S. shares slipped 4 cents to close at $57.47 on the New York Stock Exchange.