Combustion and electric drive: Conti checks IPO of its drive division

04/27/2018

Combustion and electric drive Conti checks IPO of its drive division

DPA

Continental: Possible tripartite conversation

The auto supplier Continental is considering outsourcing its propulsion business and taking some of it to the stock market. CEO Elmar Degenhart said on Friday before the shareholders, Conti continue to expand the division, in which the business with internal combustion engines and electric drives and the associated control electronics are bundled.

“This may mean that we are partly taking over the business as an independent organization, which gives us more entrepreneurial freedom.” Thus, the Conti boss signaled that the Lower Saxony, the division legally independent and could bring a part to the stock market. The majority then remain with the Dax Group from Hanover.

Continental Show stock market chart At the beginning of the year, it had announced that it would consider restructuring the company with more than 235,000 employees worldwide and a turnover of 44 billion euros. Later, management speculated that there were considerations to create agile entities that could more independently decide and adapt to market conditions more quickly.

In the face of technological change in the auto industry Towards electromobility, digitization and self-driving cars, Continental must be able to react flexibly. By the middle of the year at the latest, they wanted to go outside the plans.

Future alliance with the employees

In order to take the workforce with the impending upheaval, the management has a “future alliance” with the works council and the unions closed. In this agreement, Conti already gives employees of the Powertrain division an employment guarantee of five years in the event of organizational changes. The current collective agreements should not be shaken.

Shareholder spokespersons demanded that the Group should include not only the employees, but also the small shareholders in its plans. They wanted to know more details. Conti chief Degenhart did not comment on that, but pointed out that no decisions had yet been made. “We are in the process of setting scenarios to make our organization more flexible in meeting the challenges of the automotive industry, but we are in the analytic stage.”

manager magazin had some time ago reported on a three-part scenarioAccording to which the group could consist of the already independent Rubber Group with the tire business as the core, the powertrain powertrain and as a third part the combined units chassis, safety and interior. The third unit contained everything related to autonomous driving, new mobility services and infotainment. If necessary, parts could be listed on the stock exchange.

la / dpa / Reuters

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