Siemens to oust its leader next Wednesday

German engineering giant Siemens AG announced on Saturday that its supervisory board would decide on the early departure of the group's president and CEO Peter Loescher next Wednesday. "In addition, it will decide on the appointment of a member of the managing board as President and CEO," the Munich-based company said in a statement. The announcement came amid speculation that Loescher might be replaced after his failure to reboot the operation of Siemens since he was appointed in 2007. The Australian-born former president of global pharmaceutical company Merck & Co was criticized for not reacting enough to the global economic downturn during his management of Siemens. On Friday, the company declared that it no longer expected to achieve its profit margin target of 12 percent by 2014. "Lower market expectations" was referred as the main reason. Siemens is scheduled to report its third-quarter figures next Thursday, the day after its decision on adjusting management is set to made. In the second quarter of 2013, Siemens' total sectors profit declined by 29 percent year-over-year to slightly less than 1.4 billion euros.