For VW, investing far better than asset sales

Strategy boss plays down need to sell motorcycle brand Ducati or transmissions maker Renk

Volkswagen is more focused on its multi-billion-euro shift towards electric vehicles and transport services than any potential sale of motorcycle brand Ducati or transmissions maker Renk, its head of strategy told Reuters.

Analysts and bankers have been expecting Europe’s biggest carmaker to sell assets soon to help meet the cost of its diesel emissions test cheating scandal, which has already reached as much as $25 billion (Dh91.82 billion).

But Thomas Sedran said the German company was in no hurry to make divestments, which are opposed by its powerful labour unions, pointing to the group’s strong financial performance despite the “dieselgate” scandal.

“It’s much more important to discuss which new business fields the company will enter. Divestments are less relevant,” he said in an interview.

“Big decisions like how to expand or optimise the business portfolio of a global company need time and have to be developed by consensus. For Volkswagen, the topic of the business portfolio is very important but not time critical,” he said.

But the potential deal currently does not have the support of a majority on Volkswagen’s supervisory board, with labour leaders — who occupy half the board seats — resisting a sale unless there are compelling financial reasons.

“Top management has a clear idea of what belongs to core business and what doesn’t,” Sedran said, without elaborating.

“It is now a question of how the supervisory board will assess this and what one wants to do.”

He said the range of possible changes was “far greater than just the things that are seized on in public discussion”, adding the money to pay for the emissions scandal had to be found somewhere.

“So it’s perfectly plausible that we consider whether the time may have come to find a more suitable owner for certain business areas,” said Sedran, a former head of General Motors in Europe who joined Volkswagen two months after the scandal broke.

Bloomberg Charging cables sit connected to VW GTE Golf hybrid automobiles at a charging station in London. The German automaker is avidly chasing dreams to make electric cars.