Insurers to Pay DaimlerChrysler 168 Million Euros: Paper

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - DaimlerChrysler will recover about 168 million euros ($221.5 million) from insurers in settling a dispute over the costs of a U.S. class-action lawsuit in 2003, a German newspaper reported on Tuesday.

DaimlerChrysler and a group of insurance companies led by insurer ACE had reached an agreement shortly before the end of the year, the Financial Times Deutschland said, without citing sources.

Neither DaimlerChrysler nor ACE were immediately available for comment.

DaimlerChrysler agreed in August 2003 to pay some U.S. shareholders around 275 million euros to settle allegations that the 1998 deal to form the world's fifth-biggest carmaker was a takeover of Chrysler by Daimler-Benz, not a merger of equals as the company had said.

At the time, DaimlerChrysler said insurance would cover up to 200 million euros of the cost.

The Financial Times Deutschland said that insurer AIG had already agreed to pay 25 million euros to Daimler and that the late December agreement with ACE meant that Daimler had recovered most of the money it had sought.