DaimlerChrysler to get $221m from insurers

FRANKFURT: DaimlerChrysler will recover about e168 million ($221.5 million) from insurers in settling a dispute over the costs of a US class-action lawsuit in 2003, a German newspaper reported on Tuesday. DaimlerChrysler and a group of insurance companies led by insurer ACE had reached an agreement shortly before the end of the year, the Financial Times Deutschland said, without citing sources.

Neither DaimlerChrysler nor ACE were immediately available for comment. DaimlerChrysler agreed in August 2003 to pay some US shareholders around e275 million to settle allegations that the 1998 deal to form the world’s fifth-biggest carmaker was a takeover of Chrysler by Daimler-Benz, not a merger of equals as the company had said. At the time, DaimlerChrysler said insurance would cover up to e200 million of the cost. Insurer AIG had already agreed to pay e25 million to Daimler.