K A brief and concise presentation of the situation, a few friendly inquiries, and a quick discharge for the Executive Board and Supervisory Board – that is exactly how a Volkswagen general meeting usually does not come to an end. There are a number of reasons for this. Because the largest car company in the world drives the exhaust gas affair with millions of manipulated diesel engines faster and faster, the money bubbles, and the paragraph breaks all records.
It is unlikely, therefore, that there will hardly be a banter for the top management and the supervisory board, as it was two years ago, at the (today’s) shareholders’ meeting in Berlin. Also anger and bitterness of the shareholders should be much less tangible.
NordLB analyst Frank Schwope expects a rather peaceful Annual General Meeting: “I do not think there is a threat of major unrest.” Industry expert included Stefan Bratzel assumes that the mood is likely to be relatively good, the results eventually pointed in the right direction: “It was not all wrong in recent years.”
The cleaner
However, what might possibly be piercing demands, is the somewhat surprising change in the top management, the Volkswagen had announced in mid-April. Herbert Diess , until then solely responsible for the core brand with the VW logo, succeeds Matthias Müller – and wants to make the group in the future innovations in legs. Does this mean that the Supervisory Board and the Volkswagen owners around the Porsche and Piëch families actually regard the former CEO as a kind of “lame duck”, as Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, a car enthusiast, speculates?
Analyst Schwope waves down. Müller got the job Volkswagen which he took on as successor to Martin Winterkorn in September 2015, when he was swept away by “Dieselgate”, from the beginning “not filled with euphoria”. But he did most of the cleanup after the scandal.
Who is on the side of Diess?
In addition, enacted miller the car manufacturer a new culture. But these still have to be properly established in the company. “You have to regain confidence,” stresses Bratzel. But that is only possible if there is a real cultural change.
Bratzel also expects that this will say “a bit far”, how he sets the course and in which direction he wants to go further. “What does he do to ensure that the transformation of the industry succeeds at Volkswagen?” He asks. What is needed is a long-term vision for the next five to six years, especially against the background of the profound change in the industry, which has to cope with the great trend towards e-mobility and ever greater networking.
Also Dudenhoeffer hopes to see how the new CEO VW wants to set up. It is not yet known who will be the new manager of the day-to-day business for the VW brand, the “Chief Operating Officer” who will be assisted by Diess. If the post is filled externally, then you might still be looking, estimates Dudenhöffer.
One thing is clear: even if the business is running again, there are still some dark clouds on the horizon. There are, for example, the investor lawsuits – investors throw VW to have informed too late about the exhaust gas manipulation in September 2015.
Even the Chancellor is astonished
After the tampering, the VW stock price fell sharply and lost almost half of its value in the meantime. Also against former and current managers is determined. In addition, thousands of car owners complain against the manufacturer or their car dealer – in the hope of compensation or the return of the cars with the fraud software.
On the credit page should be: The current business is running smoothly, even if the diesel share of the sold cars in Germany has been falling for some time. This should make it much harder in the future to meet the increasingly stringent EU requirements for the emission of the climate gas CO2.
But the payment of the board also remains an excitement. The remuneration of the members of the Executive Board rose to around € 50.3 million in 2017 after € 39.5 million in the previous year. A topic to which Chancellor Angela Mekel (CDU) commented “in astonishment”. In addition, Müller recently caused discontent with GDR comparisons in salary and regulatory issues. You see: VW still has some excitement in store.