By Jan Schwartz
HAMBURG (Reuters) – The families of Volkswagen’s controlling shareholders aim to have greater influence over the automaker and want more say on strategic matters in a power play ahead of Porsche’s planned listing, people familiar with the matter said.
The Porsche and Piech families, who control the Porsche SE holding company – which holds the majority of Volkswagen’s voting rights – hope to return the group to calmer waters after a turbulent period under Chief Executive Herbert Diess, the sources added. .
“They want to keep a closer eye on the implementation of the strategic guidelines,” a person with knowledge of the families’ discussions told Reuters.
Under Diess, Volkswagen has taken big steps towards electrification, but his straightforward style has sparked opposition within the company and at times overshadowed its achievements, testing the patience of families, the sources said.
The families’ greater influence has already been reflected in the appointment of Oliver Blume as the German automaker’s next chief executive, a move that has attracted the attention of several investors as he will also remain head of Porsche AG.
Billed as the “preferred candidate” of the Porsche and Piech clan, Blume is set to go ahead with the long-awaited initial public offering (IPO) of Porsche AG, the eponymous automaker of the families he has led since 2015, the people said.
Porsche SE and Volkswagen did not comment.
The IPO is critical for the families as they would become direct shareholders of Porsche AG again following Volkswagen’s 2009 takeover of the automaker, which followed an earlier attempt by Porsche AG to buy Volkswagen.
“The IPO structure primarily serves the interest of families to further tighten their control over Porsche, and they will not be deterred from this plan,” said Hendrik Schmidt, a corporate governance expert at DWS, which owns shares in both Volkswagen and Porsche. .
Manuel Theisen, a retired professor of business administration at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich and an expert in corporate governance, said this is one way to regain some of the influence of families.
“The main reason is power.”
(Additional reporting by Christoph Steitz)
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