(Adds spokesman's comments from the second paragraph.)
By Natascha Divac
The chief executive of Telekom Austria AG (TKAGY) unexpectedly
resigned Monday, requesting to terminate his contract with effect
from July 31 to pursue an opportunity outside the company, the
company said.
Telekom Austria's supervisory board will address Hannes
Amestreiter's departure at its meeting in July. It didn't name a
replacement Monday because his request took the company by
surprise, a spokesman said.
Mr. Ametsreiter, whose contract as CEO would have run until the
end of 2016, joined the mobile business of Telekom Austria almost
two decades ago and has held numerous management positions. He has
been CEO since April 2009.
The spokesman denied Mr. Ametsreiter is leaving the company due
to internal issues, despite shareholder changes over the past few
years. Rather, his departure was "an active decision" motivated by
"the possibility of change."
Telekom Austria is majority-owned by Mexican telecommunications
giant America Movil SAB (AMX), which last year raised its stake in
the company to just under 60% of all the shares. America Movil also
has eight of the 10 seats on the company's supervisory board.
Telekom Austria's second-largest shareholder is the Austrian state
holding company, which last year signed an agreement with America
Movil giving the Mexican company operational control.
"On behalf of the Supervisory Board I would like to express our
thanks to Hannes Ametsreiter for running the business through quite
challenging times, also in the transition phase of Telekom Austria
Group becoming an affiliate of America Movíl," said Wolfgang
Ruttenstorfer, chairman of the supervisory board.
Mr Ametsreiter couldn't be immediately reached for comment.
--Nicole Lundeen contributed to this article.
Write to Natascha Divac at natascha.divac@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires