Volkswagen is pondering a stock sale of its truck and bus division as part of ongoing efforts to boost the group's efficiency, the carmaker's chief executive said on Monday. Managers at Europe's largest automotive group discussed changing the corporate structure of its trucks business last week, a step needed for an eventual separate listing, a source close to VW group said earlier on Monday.
"That is one deliberation that we have to deal with permanently," Chief Executive Matthias Mueller said in an interview with Reuters TV at the Geneva auto show. "This not only concerns Truck and Bus but the efficiency of the VW group as a whole," Mueller said. VW has been pushing steps to cede power from global headquarters to brands and regions to become more nimble after its "Dieselgate" emissions scandal broke two and a half years ago.
But a review of its portfolio of assets and stakes announced in 2016 as part of VW's post-dieselgate transformation has yet to deliver results. A planned sale of Audi's Italian motorcycle brand Ducati collapsed last year amid opposition from labour leaders. "There are no decisions (on a trucks IPO)," Mueller said. "If there are decisions one day, then we will inform about those in a very qualified way." Separately, Mueller said he was "very satisfied" with the level of support for structural changes from the carmaker's supervisory board, without elaborating.
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