TOKYO — The chief executive of Takata said Tuesday that he would step down, as the embattled car parts supplier looks to attract much-needed financial support to deal with the fallout from the largest automotive safety recall in history.
The decision by the chief executive, Shigehisa Takada, reflects the financial pressure on Takata, which lost nearly $130 million last year. The company is in danger of buckling under the cost of the recall without a lifeline.
His departure is the inevitable price of a cash infusion from new investors, who would most likely want a clean management slate. And any financial rescue would most likely mean shrinking the influence of the Takada family, which founded company in the 1930s and remains the largest shareholder. The resignation of Takada, a grandson of the founder, has been assumed for a while but never publicly discussed.
In the more than two years after Takata was engulfed in a crisis over dangerously defective air bags, automakers have recalled 60 million vehicles in the United States and tens of millions more worldwide to fix the problem. The faulty equipment has been linked to 14 deaths and more than 100 injuries.
Takada has been criticized for his leadership during the crisis. He has stayed largely in the background as the company’s reputation and cash reserves have plummeted, leaving it to subordinates to explain Takata’s response to regulators, politicians, and the news media. The company did not make any public statements until nearly a year after the defect came to light.
Takada did not say when he would resign or what role, if any, he would retain inside the company, which is publicly traded but has been controlled by his family for more than 80 years.
“I don’t intend to hold on to my position,’’ he said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting Tuesday. “Once I’ve delivered this company to a place where it’s not at risk of faltering, I want to pass the baton.’’
Takada has rarely addressed the crisis in public, but shareholder meetings, where investors can grill executives on a range of issues, have been an unavoidable exception. At Takata’s annual meeting last year, Takada apologized to victims but defended his company’s air bags as fundamentally safe.
The meeting Tuesday was the first time Takada had said publicly he would resign. Takata has been seeking emergency capital to keep it from falling into bankruptcy because of mounting recall costs. Once a rescuer is found, the company will probably be drastically restructured, including changes in its top management.
“Nobody wants to see anybody from the Takada family in charge at this point,’’ said Koji Endo, an auto industry analyst at Advanced Research Japan. “The Takada family, practically speaking, is being kicked out.’’
Until 2014, Takada served in a more ceremonial role as Takata’s chairman. But he took over responsibility for day-to-day operations that year as the company’s problems escalated, and its board named him to succeed a Swiss executive, Stefan Stocker, who was then its president.
Few believe that Takata can weather the recall crisis on its own. The company lost $127 million last year, and analysts say recall costs will remain high.
A committee of lawyers and corporate-restructuring advisers appointed by the company this year said it risked bankruptcy if it did not find rescue funding.
