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Volkswagen Group
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Volkswagen Group, or Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft (German), (listed as Volkswagen AG) is a German automobile manufacturing group, currently the third largest automobile maker in the world, and the largest in Europe. The Volkswagen AG is now a subsidiary company of the Porsche Automobil Holding SE.
Although it operates worldwide, Volkswagen Group's core market is continental Europe.
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Encyclopedia
Volkswagen Group, or Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft (German), (listed as Volkswagen AG) is a German automobile manufacturing group, currently the third largest automobile maker in the world, and the largest in Europe. The Volkswagen AG is now a subsidiary company of the Porsche Automobil Holding SE.
Although it operates worldwide, Volkswagen Group's core market is continental Europe. Of its car brands, Volkswagen Passenger Cars is its mainstream marque, and the Group's major subsidiaries also include well-known car marques like Audi, SEAT, Škoda, Lamborghini, Bentley, and Bugatti. The Group also has operations in commercial vehicles, owning Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, along with a controlling stake in Scania AB and a 29.9% stake in MAN AG.
Volkswagen's second-largest market is China where its subsidiary, Volkswagen Group China is by far the second largest joint venture automaker.
The Volkswagen Golf is the third bestselling car in the world, selling over 25 million cars through 2006. In 2007 the Volkswagen Group sold 6.19 million automobiles, claiming over 10% of the world passenger car market. In late 2007, the company openly reported that they plan to double sales, overtake Toyota and become the world's largest automaker by 2018.
History
Volkswagen was founded in 1937 as a public concern by the then Nazi government to sell the Volkswagen Beetle. After the Second World War in 1945, Ivan Hirst of the British Army (REME) took control of the bomb-shattered factory, and tried to dismantle it and ship it home. However, no British car manufacturer was interested; "the vehicle does not meet the fundamental technical requirement of a motor-car ... it is quite unattractive to the average buyer ... To build the car commercially would be a completely uneconomic enterprise." As part of the Industrial plans for Germany large parts of German industry, including Volkswagen, was to be dismantled. Total German car production was set at a maximum of 10% of the 1936 car production numbers. The company survived by producing cars for the British Army, and in 1948, the British Government handed the company back over to the German state, where it was managed by ex-Opel chief Heinrich Nordhoff.
In 1960, upon the floatation of part of the German federal government's stake in the company on the German stock market, its name became Volkswagenwerk Aktiengesellschaft (Aktiengesellschaft, abbreviated AG, is the German term for a corporation that is limited by shares, i.e. owned by shareholders, and possibly traded on the stock exchange, equivalent to the English plc. The name was changed to Volkswagen AG on 4 July 1985, to reflect the company's increasing global diversification from its headquarters and main plant, the Volkswagenwerk in Wolfsburg.
Ownership
Under the so-called "Volkswagen Law", no shareholder in VW can exercise more than 20% of the firm's voting rights, regardless of their level of stock holding. In October 2005, Porsche acquired an 18.53% stake in the business, and in July 2006, Porsche increased that ownership to more than 25%. Analysts disagreed as to whether the investment was a good fit for Porsche's strategy.
On 26 March 2007, after the European Union moved against a German law that protected VW from takeovers, Porsche took its holding to 30.9%, triggering a takeover bid under German law. Porsche formally announced in a press statement that it did not intend to take over Volkswagen, setting its offer price at the lowest possible legal value, but intended the move to avoid a competitor taking a large stake, or to stop hedge funds dismantling VW, which is Porsche's most important partner. On 3 March 2008, Porsche announced that it has decided to increase its VW stake up to 51 per cent, which would be completed before the end of the year. This was announced just hours after VW declared it would take the majority stake in the Swedish truckmaker Scania.
On 16 September 2008, Porsche announced that the company had increased its stake in Volkswagen to 35%. As of October 2008, Porsche held 42.6 percent of Volkswagen's ordinary shares and holds stock options on another 31.5 percent. On 28 October 2008, Porsche announced that they effectively held over 74%, 42.6% actual shares and the rest as convertible options. It was announced on 7 January that Porsche now owns 50.76% of Volkswagen. Volkwagen briefly became the world's most valuable company as the stock price rose to over 1,000 euros per share as short sellers tried to cover their positions.
Leadership
Corporate structure, brands and companies
Volkswagen Group owns nine active automotive companies, and their relevant marques:
Audi AG, and the 'Audi' marque — 99.14% ownership; the Audi marque is the one remaining active brand of the former Auto Union, bought from Daimler-Benz on 30 December 1964
Bentley Motors Limited, and the 'Bentley' marque — 100% ownership by Volkswagen AG; the company (at the time known as Rolls-Royce & Bentley Motors Ltd.) was bought on 28 July 1998 from Vickers, but did not include the 'Rolls-Royce' brand name. The Rolls-Royce marque was subsequently restarted by BMW who had licensed the brand from Rolls-Royce plc.
Bugatti Automobiles SAS, and the 'Bugatti' marque — 100% ownership via the Volkswagen France subsidiary of VWAG
Škoda Auto, and the 'Škoda' marque — 100% ownership since 1999
SEAT, S.A. and the 'SEAT' marque — initially 100% ownership by VW since 1990, then placed in the former Audi Brand Group with Lamborghini, now realigned 100% ownership by Volkswagen Group
Volkswagen Passenger Cars, and the 'Volkswagen' marque — 100% ownership
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (VWCV) or 'Volkswagen Nutzfahrzeuge' (VWN) — 100% ownership; started operations as an independent entity in 1995. VWCV/VWN is in charge of all commercial vehicle developments within the Group
Scania AB, and the 'Scania' marque (controlling shareholder) — 68.6% ownership since March 2008
Note: From July 1998 until December 2002, Volkswagen AG's Bentley division also sold cars under the Rolls-Royce marque, under an agreement with BMW, which had bought the rights to the Rolls-Royce name, but not the Rolls-Royce operations. From 2003, only BMW has been able to make cars under the Rolls-Royce marque.
The Group also owns five inactive marques, via Audi AG:
Auto Union (the Auto Union company, together with NSU, were merged into "Audi NSU Auto-Union AG" in 1969. The name was shortened to "Audi AG" in 1985, and the interlocked four-ring badge from Auto Union is still used by Audi)
DKW
Horch
NSU - bought in 1969 by Volkswagen AG, and merged into Audi AG; the NSU brand has not been used since 1977. However, the current Audi AG shares trade under the ticker symbol "NSU".
Wanderer
These heritage marques are retained and managed through the companies Auto Union GmbH and NSU GmbH, both of which are 100% owned by Audi AG.
Commercial vehicle interests
Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen AG) is the controlling shareholder in the Swedish commercial vehicle maker Scania AB, with a capital stake of 37.73%, and 68.60% of the voting rights. Volkswagen AG originally acquired a stake in Scania after Volvo's aborted takeover attempt in 2000, and then increased that to a capital stake of 16.5% and a voting stake of 33.4% in 2007. On 3 March 2008, Volkswagen announced that it would acquire all the shares in Scania AB held by Investor AB and the Wallenberg Foundation. Once cleared by the relevant authorities, Scania became the ninth marque in the Volkswagen Group.
On 4 October 2006, Volkswagen acquired a 15.1% stake in German commercial vehicle maker MAN AG, and later increased to 29.9%. In 2007, MAN AG launched a hostile offer to acquire Scania AB, but this was subsequently withdrawn.
Former Volkswagen Group CEO Bernd Pischetsrieder, and his successor Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn, have considered a three-way merger between MAN AG, Scania AB, Volkswagen AG's own Brazilian heavy truck division, and possibly their light truck and van division as well. Due to the size of Volkswagen AG's stakes in MAN and Scania, it is expected that Volkswagen AG would own a majority stake in such a merged entity.
Scania AB
The Wallenberg family began divesting its interests in various Swedish companies, but as a result of Volvo's aborted takeover of Scania AB, it agreed to hold a "significant share holding" in only one of Sweden's heavy truck manufacturers. This resulted in Volkswagen AG securing an 18% capital stake and 34% voting stake in Scania AB. On the 3 March 2008, it was announced that the Wallenberg's would sell their remaining stake in Scania AB to Volkswagen AG. The purchase of the stake increased Volkswagen AG's total votes in Scania to 68.60% (previously 37.98%) which corresponds to 37.73% of the capital (previously 20.89%).
MAN AG
Volkswagen AG has a 29.9% stake in German truck manufacturer MAN AG, who recently in 2006 launched a takeover bid for the Swedish truck maker Scania, in which Volkswagen AG held, at the time, 20.3% of company and 35.31% of the voting stock. Volkswagen AG had announced that it would like to see MAN and Scania merge, together along with Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles Truck and Bus operations, and form a new company in which Volkswagen AG has a blocking minority stake. However later press released stated that such a merger was not a priority, and Scania would continue to be run as a separate entity. A merged MAN-Scania would become the largest European Truck maker, leapfrogging both Volvo AB and Daimler AG. However, Daimler will still be the largest worldwide truck maker, as it has operations in the U.S., where MAN and Scania currently do not.
AutoEuropa
In the city of Palmela, Portugal, between Volkswagen and Ford opened a 50/50 joint-venture, with its initial purpose to assemble a model sold under three marques: Volkswagen Sharan, SEAT Alhambra, and Ford Galaxy. In its heyday, Autoeuropa almost reached its production limit of 172,500 units per year, but when Ford left the joint-venture and the model life-cycle approached its end, production declined considerably and Volkswagen had to compete for new models with other Volkswagen plants, while threatening to close the plant to get concessions from the workers and the State. Eventually, Autoeuropa won the production of the new model Volkswagen Eos from late 2005 and has started production of the Volkswagen Scirocco in 2008. Still, in 2005 Autoeuropa produced just 79,896 vehicles of the original models plus the Eos and will need to look for new models to keep labouring from 2010. Internal sources say AutoEuropa is to take up production of the Volkswagen Polo by latest November 2010 as a 2011 showroom model, a sub-compact sold everywhere but the US, but soon to enter the american market by late 2012(estimate).
Due to the age of the Sharan and Alhambra models, the current production is quite low, but in 2009 the production line will be prepared for their replacement, although the economic crisis will delay that model. The factory management will also try to get the production of the new Volkswagen BlueSport roadster.
Ownership
The share ownership of Volkswagen AG is distributed as follows:
In percent of voting rights:
- 50.76% - Porsche Automobil Holding SE
- 20.10% - State of Lower Saxony
- 3.58% - UBS AG, Zurich.
In percent of subscribed capital:
- 22.5% - Porsche Automobil Holding SE
- 14.8% - State of Lower Saxony
- 30.9% - Private shareholders / others
- 25.6% - Foreign institutional investors
- 6.2% - German institutional investors
Electric vehicles
Electric vehicles includes:
Twin Drive means series plug-in hybrid, in a similar way to the Chevrolet Volt.
See also
External links
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- Volkswagen Group corporate website for their corporate slogan
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