Volkswagen-Boss Oliver Blume does not want to put off the decision about a battery cell factory in Eastern Europe. “The location decision for Eastern Europe should be made shortly,” he said at the extraordinary general meeting on Friday in Berlin. The Czech Republic is being traded as a possible location for the factory, which is scheduled to start production in 2027.
The reason for the shareholders’ meeting is the decision on the special dividend from the IPO Porsche AG in the fall. The shareholders, including the largest family holding Porsche SE, the state of Lower Saxony and the Emirate of Qatar, are to clear the way for the payment of 19.06 euros per share. In total, the group paid out an additional 9.55 billion euros at the beginning of January. Because of the majority at VW, the vote is considered a formality.
Only around 7.3 percent of the voting shares are in free float, the rest in the hands of the major shareholders. Shareholder representatives have long denounced the intertwining of interests in the large Wolfsburg group and criticize that smaller shareholders have no influence as a result.
“VW mother is now worth less than the fully consolidated subsidiary”
The expert for corporate management at the fund company DWS, Hendrik Schmidt, referred to the comparatively low valuation of Volkswagen on the stock exchange. The great interest in Porsche’s IPO showed that the decision was welcomed by the capital market for economic reasons. “However, it is remarkable to note that the VW parent company is now worth less than the subsidiary, which is still fully consolidated.”
The governance deficits of the parent company would be surpassed once again by the subsidiary. Starting with the preferential treatment of family shareholders and the exclusive involvement of external shareholders in the form of non-voting preference shares, through to the personal overlaps between Volkswagen, its main owner Porsche SE and Porsche AG. This culminates in the dual role of CEO Oliver Blume, who also directs the sports car manufacturer Porsche.
The Porsche and Piech families will receive three billion euros from the special dividend
The Porsche and Piech families alone, who hold 53.3 percent of Europe’s largest car group through their holding company, can count on three billion euros from the special dividend, which they want to invest immediately in additional ordinary shares in Porsche AG. Overall, the IPO of Porsche – the largest in Germany for more than 25 years – and the sale of shares to the Volkswagen family holding company has raised more than 19 billion euros, which the group intends to invest in the conversion to a software-based mobility provider.