Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume has confirmed that the company may simulate initial public offerings (IPOs) for its brands in response to an internal push for greater focus on capital markets.
Blume said any IPO-based exercise should be understood as a “training session” responding to “clear motivation” within the Volkswagen Group to place greater emphasis on the financial sector.
Results from these sessions are expected to be presented at a capital markets day in 2023.
In an interview with German trade newspaper Handelsblatt, Blume added that there is “a lot of potential” underlining the Volkswagen Group’s marques. The comments sparked widespread speculation that more brands could follow Porsche on the trade bloc, given its successful launch on the open market earlier this week.
However, this isn't the case, a spokesman for the Volkswagen Group told Autocar Business: “Following the successful IPO of Porsche AG, Oliver Blume suggested in an interview that using the IPO process could be a useful theoretical tool to aid in the strategic planning of the individual VW Group brand. This should not be interpreted as a plan to list the brands, rather simply to aid management planning.”
As such, it's highly unlikely that any brand under the umbrella – let alone any which manufactures cars, such as Bentley or Lamborghini – will launch an IPO in the near future.
Nonetheless, Volkswagen Group chief financial officer Arno Antlitz has been steadfast in hinting that the group’s battery division, Powerco, could be floated next.
Following the formal announcement of the Porsche IPO, Antlitz said that it would give Powerco “greater flexibility” for its own IPO.
Antlitz reiterated this in an interview with Reuters last week: "The next project is strategic partnerships or a potential IPO of the battery unit. I can't say more for now.”
These comments, plus the initial success of the Porsche launch, hint that going public could be a key facet of the Volkswagen Group’s financial strategy in the long term.
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