Swedish home appliance maker Electrolux said on Monday its chief executive Keith McLoughlin (59) would retire and be replaced by senior executive Jonas Samuelson (47), just a month after the biggest deal in the company’s history collapsed.

McLoughlin will hand over on February 1st to Samuelson, head of Electrolux’s major appliances Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) division. The change comes after General Electric walked away from a $3.3 billion agreement to sell its appliances business to Electrolux in the face of opposition from US anti-trust regulators, forcing Electrolux to pay a $175 million termination fee.

The failure of the deal, which would have seen Electrolux leapfrog Whirlpool as the world’s biggest appliances maker, raised questions about its future strategy. – (Reuters)