Nestle Chairman says CEO Bulcke among candidates to succeed him: Blick

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[June 02, 2016]  VEVEY, Switzerland/LONDON (Reuters) - Nestle <NESN.S> Chairman Peter Brabeck has said there are several candidates to succeed him when he retires from the Swiss food giant next year including current Chief Executive Paul Bulcke.

"We always have two, or better three, candidates for a succession. That is also the case now," Brabeck told Swiss newspaper Blick in an interview published on Thursday. "There are several candidates. Paul Bulcke is one of them."

Asked about a potential successor for the CEO job, Brabeck said: "This time we have fewer candidates (than the five we had the last time a new CEO was appointed). In any case, there is more than one."

Brabeck, who recently recovered from cancer, is to step down as chairman next year when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 72.

Nestle, which declined to comment on management succession plans, has a history of promoting internally and some analysts expect that to continue.

Jon Cox at Kepler Cheuvreux said frontrunners for the CEO job include Laurent Freixe, head of Nestle's Americas business since October 2014, and Wan Ling Martello, former chief financial officer who now oversees the Asia, Oceania and Africa division.

"We see the Nestle model as being maintained whoever becomes the next CEO," Cox said in a note on Thursday.

(Reporting by Silke Koltrowitz in Vevey and Martinne Geller in London; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

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