The six-week long power struggle, which has gripped Switzerland's biggest travel company, Kuoni, is over. It ended with the beleaguered president, Daniel Affolter, agreeing to sever all remaining ties with the company. In return, he will receive a severance package of SFr3.7 million.

He agreed to step down as president of Kuoni and as a member of the Kuoni and Hugentobler Foundation, which controls 25 per cent of the company's voting rights.

The foundation's vice president, Heinz Müller, will act as the interim president until a new one is elected.

Two other foundation members, Kaspar Bauman and Kurt Schmid, have also announced that they will resign by the end of the year.

The head of Kuoni travel, Hans Lerch, will become the newest member of the foundation.

A statement issued by Kuoni on Wednesday evening said that all parties involved had reached a mutual agreement over Affolter's immediate resignation.

His severance package includes a SFr2 million ($1.1 million) pay-off to honour his contract until 2002 and SFr1.5 million ($830,000) of pension contributions.

In addition, Kuoni will contribute up to SFr 230,000 ($128,000) towards Affolter's legal costs incurred during the resignation deal.

All criminal proceedings for "disloyal conduct of business" will be dropped.

Affolter's resignation ends more than six weeks of inner wrangling at Kuoni, after board members tried to oust him in May.

Five out of eight board members accused Affolter of awarding himself payments of millions of francs from the Kuoni and Hugentobler foundation.

swissinfo with agencies

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