FROM Daimler-Benz to DaimlerChrysler to Daimler Ag. The name of the manufacturer of the world's best known luxury car - Mercedes-Benz - has changed thrice in nine years.

On Wednesday, the Singapore-based regional office of the German group dropped its Chrysler title. It is now known as Daimler South-east Asia. The unit that is involved in import and distribution of Mercedes vehicles here is now called Mercedes-Benz Singapore.

The name change here follows an extraordinary shareholders' meeting held in Berlin on Oct 4. At the meeting, shareholders voted in favour of the new name, after the sale of American car-maker Chrysler to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management in May.

It is not immediately clear why shareholders had decided not to include the Benz name in the renaming exercise. Mr Karl Friedrich Benz was the founder of a company which Gottlieb Daimler's group merged with in 1926.

As far as operations in Singapore go, the Chrysler division still shares the Daimler premises in Centennial Tower. Daimler will still provide some backend support functions. All these, however, is understood to be based on commercial terms.

Daimler Ag employs over 270,000 people worldwide. In the first half of this year, it posted revenue of 47.2 billion euros. Its main competitor is BMW Ag, which has already surpassed Mercedes-Benz sales worldwide.

The race in Singapore is neck-to-neck. Although BMW sold more cars than Mercedes here last year, the latter has regained its pole position. In the first eight months of the year, Mercedes' authorised dealer Cycle & Carriage sold 2,437 Merc passenger cars, versus authorised BMW agent Performance Motors' 2,296 cars.