Well, then, what’s the real story behind his untimely departure as head of Continental late last year? Kessel says that the ailing German tire and auto-parts maker’s board withdrew support for his proposed sale of a loss-making rubber business because of concerns over postSeptember 11 market conditions. Kessel confides that he saw only one option: “Divorce.” So after 17 years at Conti, he quit. The subsidiary is still losing money, he points out.
Meanwhile, Kessel, 47, has lately joined Investcorp as an advisory director, chiefly to scout out German turnaround candidates for the Bahrain-listed merchant bank. Once a company is in the fold, Kessel plans to focus on managers’ attitudes, not their wallets: “The real change has to happen in people’s minds. First, they must want to be in a better situation -- payment systems simply facilitate that attitude change.”
Investcorp, which has made some 60 acquisitions of corporate fixer-uppers in its two decades, is targeting underperforming units of German industrial companies. Hmm. Conti may just have a rubber unit that it’s now willing to part with.
