* Board members pressing for replacement of CEO-Bilanz
* Lohr could be named CEO before May 11 AGM-Bilanz
* Chairman says board is very satisfied with Steiner
* Chairman says board to decide succession in due course
(Releads with Chairman backing CEO, background on waste water
disposal, prosecutor's charges)
FRANKFURT, March 30 (Reuters) - Germany's K+S SDFGn.DE is
happy with Norbert Steiner as chief executive, the potash and
salt mining group's chairman said in response to a report that
there was board pressure to replace him with the K+S finance
chief.
German magazine Bilanz reported on Wednesday that
"influential supervisory board members" at K+S were pressing for
Chief Financial Officer Burkhard Lohr to be made CEO before its
May 11 AGM because they were dissatisfied with the business.
"The board is very satisfied with the work of Mr Steiner,"
supervisory board Chairman Ralf Bethke said in a statement in
response to the report, which cited unnamed company sources.
Bethke said the board had been looking intensively at the
succession plan for Steiner, whose contract runs out after the
2017 annual shareholder meeting, and that it would publish its
decision in due course.
K+S warned earlier this month of a significant drop in
operating profit, citing lower potash prices and output
restrictions imposed by environmental regulators.
Lohr joined as CFO in 2012, having held the same position at
construction group Hochtief HOTG.DE .
Steiner, who recently said he expected to retire in May 2017
when his contract runs out, has had a tumultuous time of late.
Last year, K+S fended off a 41-euro-per share takeover
approach from larger Canadian rival Potash Corp POT.TO , which
withdrew its proposal in October.
Steiner argued at the time the proposed bid failed to take
into account the value of K+S's new mining project in Canada and
its global salt business but K+S has seen its share price drop
to 21 euros, hurt by lower global potash prices.
The company is facing production outages this year because a
environmental regulator in the state of Hesse in December gave
only provisional approval for the disposal of waste water and
imposed strict limits.
K+S has said it expects to get the regulator's final
approval, meaning that restrictions would be lifted, by summer
of this year.
Separately, German prosecutors are pressing charges against
CEO Steiner and 13 other K+S employees over alleged illegal
waste water disposal, but the court has yet to decide whether
the case will go to trial.
K+S has said a legal audit it had commissioned by an
external law firm found no evidence of criminal conduct.