A page turns Volkswagen with the departure of Ferdinand Piëch announced Saturday that his resignation with immediate effect from his position as chairman of the supervisory board after losing the standoff that opposed to Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Management of the manufacturer.
At the age of 78 years, strongman of VW for over 20 years, Ferdinand Piëch is the little son of the inventor of the iconic Beetle, Ferdinand Porsche.
For several weeks, the crisis was brewing, and she was accentuated when Ferdinand Piëch publicly withdrew its support for Martin Winterkorn.
The maneuvers orchestrated behind the scenes by Ferdinand Piëch have grown weary on the Board surveillance whose members feared that they weaken the group.
“The president unilaterally plunged the company into the worst possible turbulence,” said this week an employee representative on the supervisory board. “He should really think about what this means for him and his situation.”
Isolated and contested, Ferdinand Piëch eventually lost the support of employee representatives of Lower Saxony and even his own cousin Wolfgang Porsche, which was stored behind Martin Winterkorn.
IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION
“A consensus was reached on the steering committee, so that in the light of what took place this week, the confidence fruitful cooperation was not there, “said a statement.
Ferdinand Piëch resigned with immediate effect from all his functions within Volkswagen, like his wife Ursula, presents to the Supervisory Board since 2012.
“The starting Piëch is an earthquake within the Volkswagen power structure and could have dramatic consequences on the operation of one of the first carmakers in the world, “wrote Karl Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book.
” VW has remained in the footsteps of General Motors and Toyota in recent years, in for a three race for the title of first manufacturer in the world, but VW is struggling in some markets, the US and Brazil, for example, and its profit margin is lower than those of GM and Toyota, which shows that there is still work to do. “
Released won his battle with Ferdinand Piëch, Martin Winterkorn, whose term ends in 2016 sees increase his chances to succeed him, and, according to high-placed sources in the VW organization, it was just what the resigning wanted to avoid at all costs.
MUSICAL CHAIRS
In this game of musical chairs, he n is not excluded that the CEO of Porsche, Matthias Müller, in turn take the place of Martin Winterkorn.
“How are we going to fill the void left by the departure of Piëch? Winterkorn Will he take the presidency (supervisory board) and Matthias Müller take the post of president (the executive board)? It is possible, “said Stuart Pearson, an analyst with Exane BNP Paribas.
Still, the influence of Piëch could continue to exercise through 51% of voting rights held by the Piëch clan -Porsche in Volkswagen, that is if the already strained family relationships do not turn to the battle.
as much as the issues raised by Ferdinand Piëch did not answer, beginning with that of the group’s inability to settle finally on the low-cost segment.
When he became CEO in 1993, VW was losing money and n has not hesitated to take drastic measures to redress the balance by reducing both wages and working time on German sites while streamlining production.
During the nine years that he moved to this position, he transformed a loss of the equivalent of one billion euros in a profit of 2.6 billion while feeding external growth around a dozen brands allowing the group to be present on a variety of segments, from trucks to 40 ton vehicles called “green”. (Nicolas Delame for the French service)
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