Volkswagen increases dividend: Record profit, record sales – but VW remains cautious

02/23/2018

Volkswagen raises dividend record profit, record sales – but VW remains cautious

DPA

VW CEO Matthias Müller: More profit, more sales, more dividend

Money machine despite the diesel scandal: Europe’s largest car maker Volkswagen Show stock market chart has almost doubled its operating profit in the midst of scandals and during the corporate restructuring. In addition, the car maker from Wolfsburg increases the dividend on strong. Non-voting “preferred” shareholders receive € 3.96 per share, ordinary shareholders such as the Porsche and Piech families, Qatar and Lower Saxony € 3.90 per share.

The operating result jumped in the past year thanks to a strong increase in deliveries and the refurbishment success of the main brand VW by about 95 percent to 13.8 billion euros. In the previous year, 7.1 billion euros were accounted for. Analysts had expected an average of 14.7 billion euros for the 2017 financial year.

11.4 billion euros net profit

The bottom line was the preliminary figures, according to a net profit of 11.4 (previous year 5.1) billion euros, as the Wolfsburg announced on Friday. That was more than expected by analysts. Nonetheless, the stock initially fell – the outlook for the current year remained below expectations.

“The margin outlook disappointed,” said a trader. VW expects an operating yield of between 6.5 and 7.5 percent in 2018. In the market, a margin of 7.5 to eight percent was expected, stressed the stockbrokers.

VW sales rise to 230 billion euros, dividends increase

Booming at Daimler: Geely CEO Li Shufu, the “Henry Ford of China,” has secured a share of 9.7 percent, making it the largest shareholder even before the emirate of Qatar ascended. Some are already celebrating the Geely boss as a powerful anchor shareholder, who will lead Daimler in the fast lane in the electric mobility: “For Daimler, Geely is almost something like a Quandt family at BMW or Porsche Piëch at VW”, for example my auto expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer ,

Since Geely took over the car manufacturer Volvo, things are getting better again for the Swedes. And even in Daimler’s most important single market China, the Geely boss, who does not see himself as a competitor of Daimler (Li: The new competitors come from outside the auto industry), could be useful. However, Li is still a long way from an influence that the Quandt family exercises on BMW …

New power relations at BMW: After the siblings Stefan Quandt (l.) And Susanne Klatten (r.) Have divided the voting rights of their 2015 deceased mother Johanna Quandt among themselves, Stefan Quandt now has, as this week became known, with a share of 25 , 83 percent of the voting rights over a blocking minority at the Munich car maker. Susanne Klatten holds 20.94 percent of the BMW voting rights, so …

… the majority of rights are still in free float. A look at the ranks of the listed top companies in Germany shows: Although in the vast majority of companies, the free float of more than 50 percent – but by no means all. Rather, there are several cases in which founding families have generally made their say in the long term. At the BMW competitor …

… Volkswagen is about that. Available in a wide free float and listed in the Dax are only the non-voting preference shares of the car company. By contrast, the ordinary shares, which are also associated with voting rights at the Annual General Meeting, are …

… with about 52 percent for the most part via the Porsche Holding in Stuttgart owned by the families Porsche and Piëch (pictured: the family members and Volkswagen supervisory boards Hans Michel Piëch, l., and Wolfgang Porsche). Other major shareholders with voting rights at Volkswagen are the state of Lower Saxony with 20 percent of the vote and the Emirate of Qatar with 17 percent.

Special feature: Although the state of Lower Saxony does not have the required share of votes of 25 percent, but due to the so-called VW law still has a blocking minority at Volkswagen (pictured left: Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister and VW Supervisory Board Stephan Weil, SPD).

A popular option for founding families to keep their power in the company despite going public is the construction of a partnership limited by shares (KGaA). The consumer goods manufacturer Henkel, for example, is one such KGaA. Thereby …

… the founding Henkel family was able to ensure in the long run that it retains the majority of its voting rights, currently around 61 percent. Family member Simone Bagel-Trah, great-great-granddaughter of Group founder Fritz Henkel, has been chairing the Henkel Supervisory Board since 2009.

The situation is similar with the pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck KGaA, where the founding family with its extensive ramifications still holds 70 percent of the shares.

The “Clanchef” of around 200 family members at Merck is Frank Stangenberg-Haverkamp, who holds the most important roles at the head of E. Merck KG.

Things got a little different with the automotive supplier Continental: The company headquartered in Hannover came under the spotlight in 2008 of the Schaeffler Group, another automotive supplier from southern Germany. After some back and forth and influenced by the turbulence of the financial crisis, ultimately …

… 46 percent of the Continental shares in the Schaeffler family (pictured: mother Maria-Elisabeth and son Georg), where they are still today. Although this is not an absolute majority, but at the Schaefflers is at Conti no passing shop. Incidentally, the Schaefflers brought a few years later, the own company on the stock exchange – and retained in this case, the majority of the voting rights in their own hands.

Also not completely independent is the consumer goods manufacturer Beiersdorf based in Hamburg. Roughly 51 percent of the shares are located …

… via the holding maxingvest AG owned by the Herz family, of which Michael Herz also has a representative on the Beiersdorf Supervisory Board.

In addition, the leading index Dax, which bundles the 30 most important German companies, has various groups that have a strong anchor shareholder who has a say in important decisions. At Thyssenkrupp, for example, around 21 percent of the shares are held by Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach Foundation.

At the former state-owned company Deutsche Telekom, the Federal Republic is still today the most important individual investor. In addition to 14.5 percent of the shares that the state holds directly in the Telekom, he controls another 17.4 percent, which are owned by the state development bank KfW.

Even at Commerzbank, the Federal Republic of Germany is still the largest single shareholder after the rescue operation during the financial crisis.

Founder families who do not want to let go even after the IPO are also in the second stock exchange league. One example has already been mentioned with the Schaeffler Group, another is the media group Axel Springer SE. The MDax-listed company controls …

… the family around publisher’s widow Friede Springer directly and indirectly 52.4 percent of the shares. Incidentally, another 2.8 percent are owned by CEO Mathias Döpfner.

Similar example: At the eyewear company Fielmann, also listed in the MDax, the family around company founder Günther Fielmann directly and indirectly still holds about 70 percent of the shares.

VW’s consolidated sales climbed 6.2 percent to 230.7 billion euros. Worldwide, Volkswagen delivered 10.7 million vehicles to customers, 4.3 percent more than in the previous year.

The ordinary shareholders, including the largest of the Porsche and Piech families, the state of Lower Saxony and the Emirate of Qatar, are to receive a dividend of 3.90 euros per share.

The preference shareholders will receive 3.96 euros per unit certificate. For 2016, it was 1.90 cents less.

For the beginning of the year, the world’s largest carmaker announced moderate increases in deliveries. The Group is currently investing billions of euros in the conversion to a leading supplier of electric cars and mobility services.

10.7 million vehicles delivered

In 2017, the VW Group delivered 10.74 million vehicles to customers worldwide, a good four percent more than a year earlier. Volkswagen remained so calculated with its brands the world’s largest carmaker. Sales increased by 6.2 percent to 230.7 billion euros.

Also on Friday, CEO Matthias Müller should not only inform the supervisory board about the course of business, but also about the controversial animal experiments with diesel exhaust fumes on monkeys. These tests were co-financed by VW, Daimler and BMW.

la / dpa / Reuters

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