On February 29th, Volkswagen Group announced an important decision: it will further strengthen the strategic position of Audi brand.
"We are concentrating on strengthening the competitive advantage of Audi brand," said Diss, CEO of Audi AG and Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Audi brand.
It is reported that in order to achieve the above goals, Audi AG has taken three powerful concrete measures.
First of all, the "integrated" managers.
"Considering the subversive changes in the automobile industry, we are pooling the advantages of the whole group to meet the future with a more competitive positioning. Next, Audi brand and its helm, the new CEO? Mr. duesman will take over and lead the R&D work of Audi AG and strive to take the lead in technology quickly. " Edith said.
However, duesman's "dual identity" in Audi ag and Audi brand is equivalent to mastering the highest R&D authority of Volkswagen Group in management. In this respect, Audi is also closely related to the research and development of Audi AG.
Second, complete control of the Audi brand.
"As part of the adjustment of functions and responsibilities, Audi AG is planning to increase its shareholding in Audi from the current 99.64% to 65,438+000% through squeeze mergers and acquisitions according to the German Law on Joint-stock Companies". ? Volkswagen Group said.
According to the announcement, Volkswagen Group has submitted a request to transfer a minority stake to Audi brand. According to the request and the German joint-stock company law, the equity transfer will be completed by a resolution at the shareholders' meeting of Audi AG this year. This year's general meeting of shareholders of Audi AG will be postponed to July or August 2020.
This means that after the merger, Volkswagen will hold 0/00% of the shares of Audi/KLOC.
Because Volkswagen's plan to acquire the remaining shares of Audi is unpredictable, the industry has expressed that it is "difficult to see through" this operation.
According to the information from the capital market, according to Audi's current share price of 900 euros, with a total of 43 million outstanding shares, the value of 0.36% free outstanding shares is about 65.438+0.39 billion euros. For Audi AG, whose annual operating profit reaches 654.38+07 billion euros, the income from this merger is obviously not the purpose.
In this regard, Volkswagen Group said that the acquisition of Audi's remaining equity is to "make management more effective". At the same time, behind the equity merger, it is also the repositioning of Audi headquarters Ingolstadt by Volkswagen.
With the launch of the new PPE electric platform, Ingolstadt, where Audi's global headquarters is located, will also become the core of the organizational structure of the group's new independent business unit "Automobile". Software ". This new business department will be committed to integrating the software development work of all parts of the group, with the goal of increasing the proportion of self-developed automotive software on Volkswagen models to at least 60% by 2025.
"For customer experience, software is becoming more and more important, so we must have core competitiveness in software." ? Christian, head of digital vehicles and services at Audi AG? Senge said.
According to the data of Lv Fei Auto, cars. Software is a newly established department of Volkswagen Group in June last year. This department was officially put into operation on June 65438+1 October1this year. It mainly develops the car operating system named "vw.os" and car software and services including Volkswagen Cloud. According to the planning of Volkswagen Group, by 2025, all new models of the company will use the "vw.os" software platform.
This is also the third action of the Volkswagen Group. Under all kinds of actions, its fundamental intention is to strengthen the strategic role of Audi brand "research and development".
Audi brand has always been a key brand among the sub-brands of Volkswagen Group and a single brand of luxury brand group of Volkswagen Group. Accelerating transformation is the "bright spot" of the brand's development in recent years.
20 19, 165438+ 10. In October, Audi said that by 2023, it will invest more than/kloc-0.5 billion US dollars in the field of electrification, and by 2025, it plans to launch more than 30 electric vehicles, whose sales will account for the total sales.
From this point of view, Audi is becoming a "secret weapon" for the public to plan for future transformation.
"Volkswagen needs to accelerate its business reform to avoid becoming Nokia." Diss pointed out that the arrival of new technologies means a new era. Even if a huge empire fails to pass the examination of the new era, it is basically an inevitable ending and falls into the altar.
For the automobile circle, the horn of the new era has sounded, and the trend of "electric shock" in the automobile industry is unstoppable. Even the Volkswagen Group, which is still "ups and downs", must achieve the ability to earn "new money".
Audi ag's recently released financial report shows that its annual sales revenue increased by 654.38+068 billion euros compared with the previous year, reaching 252.6 billion euros, and its operating profit excluding special items increased by 654.38+02.8%, reaching 654.38+093 billion euros. The net cash flow of automobile business increased from-300 million euros in 20 18 to 108 million euros.
As for "up, up, up", the financial report points out that Volkswagen Group has increased the sales of SUV models with higher profits, from less than 25% in 20 18 to 40% in 20 19.
At the same time, the amount of fines and settlements caused by diesel engine emissions has also dropped from 3.2 billion euros a year ago to 2.3 billion euros. Under the influence of these two main factors, the annual operating profit of Audi AG increased by 22%.
In short, Volkswagen Group has paid less and less for the "diesel door", higher and higher profits, and more and more liquidity on hand.
The "resident" of the sales crown is the biggest driving force for the profit increase.
In 20 19, Volkswagen Group surpassed Toyota again with global sales of 10974600. No one can shake the throne of global automobile sales champion at the end of this year.
Volkswagen's success in winning the championship for four consecutive years is dazzling, but behind this, the China market is bound to contribute.
For a long time, the China market has played an important role in tens of millions of cars.
According to the consulting data of Lv Fei Auto, in 20 19, the sales volume of Volkswagen brand in China market reached 4.233 million, accounting for nearly 40% of Volkswagen's global sales, comparable to the whole of Europe. The phrase "He who wins China wins the world" was once again fulfilled by the public.
Despite the challenges in the China market, the Group's operating profit from two joint ventures in China, FAW-Volkswagen and SAIC-Volkswagen, basically reached the level of the previous fiscal year, reaching 4.4 billion euros (about 39.9 billion yuan), accounting for 25.88% of the total operating profit of the Volkswagen Group of 654.38+07 billion euros.
This is equivalent to 65,438+0/4 of the operating profit of Audi AG coming from China.
For 2020, Audi AG predicts that the car delivery in 2020 will be consistent with the market performance last year, the sales revenue will increase by 4% year-on-year, and the sales revenue of passenger car business will be slightly higher than last year's level.
But, Nord? LB analyst frank? Schwope said, "The reduction of diesel-related fines is positive, but I doubt whether Volkswagen can maintain its prospects in the case of declining sales in China."
According to the data of Lv Fei Automobile Consulting, the sales volume of Volkswagen in China in June was 343,000, which was 438+0 1.3% year-on-year. Although sales in other countries have also declined, China has the biggest decline in global sales performance.
Affected by the epidemic and the Spring Festival, the decline may be expected, but it deserves the public's "vigilance".
It is not easy to keep "old money" to earn "new money" and sit on the throne of giants.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.