Nivea maker Beiersdorf looking for new finance chief

BERLIN (Reuters) - Beiersdorf (BEIG.DE), the maker of Nivea and other skin care products, said on Thursday it is looking for a new finance chief, but declined to comment on a magazine report that said the move was due to the dissatisfaction of a major shareholder.

A spokeswoman confirmed a report in the Manager Magazin monthly that the supervisory board had decided not to extend the contract of Jesper Andersen that is due to end in June, but declined to give reasons.

The magazine said the driving force behind the departure of the 47-year-old Dane was Michael Herz, co-owner of the coffee chain Tchibo. The Tchibo holding company, which owns a 51 percent stake in Beiersdorf, declined to comment.

Andersen, who previously worked for more than two decades at consumer products group Colgate-Palmolive (CL.N), was appointed to the Beiersdorf executive board in 2015 and took over from long-serving CFO Ulrich Schmidt in 2016.

Beiersdorf last month posted a 5.7 percent underlying rise in group sales in 2017, faster than the 4 to 5 percent gain it had forecast, and said it was optimistic for 2018. It announces full 2017 figures on March 1. [nL8N1P359W]

($1 = 0.8352 euros)

(Reporting by Jan Schwartz; Writing by Emma Thomasson; Editing by David Holmes)