A large contract could ensure a return to the black for loss makingDRS.POSITIVE rumours are buzzing round loudspeaker group NXT. The stock surged 24p to 456.5p yesterday amid talk that the final results, due on 8 October, will provide some pleasant surprises.The maker of electronic equipment has signed a swathe of licensees for its Mission loudspeakers in the past few months in a bid to boost sales. The deals could help the company to beat current market forecasts of a loss of about pounds 8.78m .. SHARES IN DaimlerChrysler, the world’s fifth-biggest car maker, plunged to a new low for the year yesterday amid growing worries that a top management overhaul, due to be agreed by the board today, will further unsettle investor confidence in the group.

At the same time, the shares have fallen by more than 20 per cent. Against the German Dax, DaimlerChrysler shares have underperformed by 16 per cent. The two Daimler executives tipped to depart are the group’s head of personnel, Heiner Tropitzsch, and the head of its commercial vehicles division, Kurt Lauk.One New York analyst said yesterday that if Mr Stallkamp was shown the door it would amount to the “decapitation” of the group’s US network which would unsettle other senior Chrysler managers and further rattle US investor confidence.Since the merger, the proportion of shares held by US investors has shrunk from 44 to 25 per cent. Nor do they want to undermine all the work that has gone into welding together two very disparate corporate cultures and overcoming the initial friction caused by the big differentials in pay between the two halves of the business.In addition to Mr Stallkamp, who led a cost-cutting initiative within Chrysler before the merger, Ted Cunningham, head of Latin American sales, is also expected to go.

It is currently made up of 10 Daimler and seven Chrysler executives and is expected to be reduced to between 10 and 13 executives.However, Mr Schrempp and his co-chairman, Bob Eaton, are anxious not to upset the delicate balance between German and American executives. The biggest casualty of the shake-up is expected to be its president, Thomas Stallkamp, a former Chrysler executive. To counter charges that the overhaul amounts to a German coup, two Daimler executives are also likely to lose their board seats.
Jurgen Schrempp, the company’s joint chairman and chief executive and the architect of last year’s $36bn takeover of Chrysler by Daimler-Benz, has made no secret of his intention to streamline the board. He was speaking to Russian reporters.Authorities have linked the bomb and three others in Russia, which have left 300 people dead, to the Islamic militants in southern Russia. Russia has launched several artillery and air strikes against suspected rebel bases since last month, when militants crossed from Chechnya into Dagestan and seized several villages..