Winterkorn still oversees car firm

AS NEW Volkswagen (VW) chief executive Matthias Mueller seeks to repair the car maker’s image, his moves will be overseen by none other than his scandal-scarred predecessor, Martin Winterkorn.

While Winterkorn was put under pressure to step down as VW’s chief last week, he remains in the top executive job at Porsche Automobil Holding, which owns 52.2 percent of the car maker’s voting stock. He is also still chairman of VW’s publicly traded Audi unit as well as the group’s truck holding company, among other positions.

His continued role was a contentious issue, especially for labour leaders, said people familiar with the issue.

It also raises questions about whether VW can truly reform itself with old-guard insiders in key positions. “

It shows that modern corporate governance doesn’t play a role at Volkswagen,” said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, the director of the Centre for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen. “They need someone independent as the main shareholder.”

VW representatives were not available for comment on the firm’s corporate governance, and a spokesman for VW could not comment on Winterkorn’s other positions within the group.

A spokesman for Porsche Holding confirmed that Winterkorn remains chief executive and declined to comment on his future in the role.

VW’s unusual structure stems from the partial takeover of the car maker by Porsche last decade. The firm failed to completely acquire VW and ended up selling the Porsche sports car brand to the car maker after running into financial woes. Winterkorn then became chief executive of VW and Porsche, its majority shareholder. – Bloomberg SOUTH Africa’s platinum sector needed to develop local industries such as jewellery production to counter falling global prices which steepened after Volkswagen (VW) admitted rigging diesel emissions tests, the Trade and Industry Minister, Rob Davies, said yesterday.

Platinum posted its biggest weekly drop since July last week on fears that the VW emissions scandal could hurt demand for diesel cars, which use platinum autocatalysts to make cars more environmentally friendly.

The platinum price has fallen 22 percent this year, piling pressure on mining firms to sell assets and cut production. About twothirds of the industry, which is still recovering from a five-month strike last year, is loss-making at prices below $1 000 (R14 086) an ounce. It was around $916 an ounce yesterday.

“If we are going to smelter platinum and nothing much else, we are going to be at the mercy of global markets, we are going to be hanging around, waiting for some recovery in the price,” Davies said.

“I don’t know directly what impact the VW issue will have, we will have to wait and see where that goes,” Davies said.

He said the government was working towards a programme in the platinum belt to create industries such as jewellery production and fuel cell technology. He did not elaborate.

Fuel cells generate electric power by combining hydrogen and oxygen over a catalyst such as platinum.

Davies spoke after the launch of a R150 million 4.3 megawatt thermal energy project at Anglo Platinum’s (Amplats) Waterval smelter complex in the North West.

Davies said that his department was willing to provide incentives and grants, such as the R30m given to Amplats, for power production.

“We don’t offer all the money that is required but there are incentives and grants,” he said. – Reuters