Faurecia names finance chief Favre new head of Hella, appoints new CFO

(Reuters) - France's Faurecia has appointed its current Chief Financial Officer Michel Favre the new CEO of Hella, the German car parts supplier it took over earlier this year, the company said in a statement on Friday.

Born in 1958, Favre was previously head of finance at French supermarket group Casino and cigarette maker Altadis.

Olivier Durand will take over as group CFO effective from July, said the group, though he will continue to supervise activities at the group's Clarion Electronics branch.

The Hella acquisition, which Faurecia sealed earlier this month, is set to make the combined group "Forvia" the world's seventh-biggest auto supplier.

But hopes for cost savings from the acquisition were overshadowed on Monday when Faurecia posted disappointing guidance for 2022, weighed by lower car production.

The group had already issued two profit warnings ahead of its 2021 results, as carmakers made dramatic cuts to their production due to shortages in semiconductor chips, which cut into earnings for their suppliers.

Faurecia expects to release a full-year guidance for the combined group with Hella along with first-quarter sales figures on April 28.

(Reporting by Sarah Morland, editing by Tassilo Hummel)