FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Loss-making German industrial services group Bilfinger (>> Bilfinger SE) named Axel Salzmann as its new finance chief on Tuesday and said it had a clear preference for a new chief executive.

Bilfinger issued four profit warnings last year as it was hit by difficult conditions in the energy market and a cyclical downturn in chemicals that put customer projects on hold. It has been looking for new leadership for several months.

Sources close to the supervisory board have told Reuters that Bilfinger's choice for CEO to lead it out of its current troubles is Per Utnegaard, currently CEO of Swiss airport services group Swissport.

"The (CEO) appointment will be made as soon as the candidate has reached agreement with his current employer over the timing of his departure," Bilfinger said in a statement, without saying who the candidate was.

Utnegaard is a transport and logistics industry veteran who has held senior management roles at Deutsche Post (>> Deutsche Post AG) and TNT (>> TNT EXPRESS) before becoming Swissport CEO in 2007.

Salzmann will start on April 1. He has been chief financial officer of German broadcast group ProSiebenSat.1 (>> ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG) since 2008, joining shortly after a private equity buyout of a majority of the company.

Bilfinger has a new chairman, automotive and retail veteran Eckhard Cordes, and is now 26 percent owned by Sweden-based European activist investor firm Cevian.

(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Harro ten Wolde and Jane Merriman)