Sandvik Chief Executive Rosengren to step down and join ABB as CEO

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish engineering group Sandvik's Chief Executive Officer Bjorn Rosengren will step down next year and will join Swiss-Swedish robotics and engineering group ABB Ltd as CEO, the companies said in separate statements on Sunday.

Rosengren, who has a reputation for being ruthless with underperforming divisions, will join ABB in February next year, ABB said.

He will take over from acting ABB CEO Peter Voser in March, with Voser reverting to his position as chairman of the board at ABB, according to the company's statement.

Voser took over temporarily as head of ABB after Ulrich Spiesshofer left suddenly in April.

Businesses which generate $3 billion of revenue, 11% of ABB's total annual sales, are now under review and could be sold off or closed down, Voser told Reuters in a recent interview.

Voser, the former Royal Dutch Shell CEO, who is also ABB's chairman, has pledged a turnaround after years of unsatisfactory performance. ABB shares have fallen nearly 20% in the last five years.

"Bjorn Rosengren has, since he joined Sandvik in November 2015, established a solid decentralized business model for the company and made the organization more flexible and efficient," Sandvik said in a statement, adding it would initiate the work to appoint a new President and CEO on Monday.

Rosengren, 60, has also held several positions in Sandvik peer Atlas Copco and was the CEO of Finnish engineering group Wartsila between 2011–2015.

Sandvik, maker of metal-cutting tools and mining gear, said last month it would cut around 2,000 jobs to buttress profitability in the face of early signs of slowing market demand.

(Reporting by Johan Ahlander in Stockholm and Akshay Balan in Bengaluru; editing by Grant McCool)