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MUNICH -- Continental declined to comment on media reports that Karl-Thomas Neumann will be the supplier's new CEO.

Germany's Manager Magazin said Neumann, a Continental management board member, will be appointed CEO of the German supplier at a meeting of the company's supervisory board on Saturday.

The publication did not cite sources. Last week, the German business newspaper Handelsblatt said Neumann is the favorite candidate to succeed current CEO Manfred Wennemer.

Wennemer will quit Continental by August 31. His departure follows a decision today by the supplier's supervisory board to allow Schaeffler Group to take a strategic stake of up to nearly 50 percent in Continental.

Wennemer has opposed Schaeffler's involvement in Continental. He said that the tactics Schaeffler used to acquire a 36 percent stake in the company between March and July were "high-handed and irresponsible."

When ask about the reports on Neumann's future a Continental spokesman told Automotive News Europe: "We do not comment on speculation."

Continental says Wennemer's successor will be appointed in the immediate future.

Manager Magazin also said that a new chief financial officer is to be appointed on Saturday. It said a top Deutsche Post official, Michael Krause, is the likely candidate. Krause is chief financial officer of the business area Supply Chain Mainland Europe at the logistics division of Deutsche Post World Net.

Currently, Alan Hippe is Continental's chief finance officer.

Last week, Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Applied Sciences in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, told ANE that Hippe was to blame for allowing Schaeffler to built up such a huge stake in Continental.

"He did not foresee the danger Continental was in before Schaeffler's move," Dudenhöffer said. "He did not protect the company well enough."

Thompson Financial contributed to this report