Shares Of Caterpillar Trades Lower On Officer Retirement, Consolidation Of Divisions

Shares of Caterpillar Inc. CAT were trading lower by more than 1.50 percent on Wednesday after the company announced the retirement of Steve Niehaus, the company's vice president that oversees the Electric Power Division (EPD). Caterpillar stated that following Niehaus' retirement, the company will consolidate the Electric Power and Marine & Petroleum Power Divisions into a new segment called Electric Power, Margine and O&G Division. The segment will be led by the current vice president of the Marine & Power segment, Tom Frake. Niehaus has decided to retire after spending 27 years with the company, the last 3 of which he served as vice president. "We continue to focus on our customers' success with leading and innovative products, services and solutions, while also reducing costs in this challenging environment," said Caterpillar Chairman & CEO Doug Oberhelman. "Consolidating these energy operations along with the recently announced integration of two divisions within Customer & Dealer Support will bring efficiencies and a streamlined leadership team. With these changes, we will have reduced executive leadership by 13 percent since 2013."