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The hedge fund industry’s woes have hit home for Richard Perry.

12:19:59 RTRS - VOLKSWAGEN AG VOWG_p.DE SAYS FINANCIAL STRENGTH OF VOLKSWAGEN IS STILL QUITE ROBUST. VOWG.DE VOWG_p.DE

12:20:32 RTRS - VOLKSWAGEN AG VOWG_p.DE SAYS TODAY, THE TOTAL SPECIAL ITEMS RELATING TO DIESEL ISSUE AMOUNTS TO €17.8 BILLION AND ALL CONSEQUENCES OF DIESEL TOPIC KNOWN SO FAR ARE COVERED VOWG.DE VOWG_p.DE

12:20:48 RTRS - VOLKSWAGEN AG VOWG_p.DE SAYS CAN COMMENT ON THE AMOUNT OF PENALTY PAYMENTS ONLY ONCE THE ONGOING PROCEDURES AND INVESTIGATIONS HAVE BEEN WRAPPED UP VOWG.DE VOWG_p.DE

As NBA training camps open Tuesday, one of the league’s most important players has already been placed on disability.

{https://global.handelsblatt.com/edition/523/ressort/companies-markets/article/schaeffler-to-revive-industrials-sector}

Schaeffler Begins Industrial Revolution

Schaeffler, the specialist car parts maker that almost buckled under the weight of the acquisition of its rival Continental, now wants to focus on its long-neglected industrial division, bringing precision bearings and components into the digital age

Schaeffler, the privately owned firm best known for producing precision car parts, wants to revive its languishing industrial division, Handelsblatt has learned.

Klaus Rosenfeld, who has been in charge of the company since 2013, wants to intensify a modernization program, titled the Core program, which will see some 500 job cuts and the launch of a range of new products.

Schaeffler has until recently been loaded down with debt, the result of an over-ambitious debt-financed takeover of tire-maker Continental in 2008, a deal badly hit by the financial crisis.

As a result, its recent industrial performance has been grim. Partly because the automotive division has soared, the industrial division now generates only 25 percent of company earnings, down from 40 percent not long ago. Insiders hint that long-serving former chief executive Jürgen Geissinger was very much a car man. Over the years, its other business, as a precision manufacturer of industrial components, has fallen into decline.

Schaeffler is many ways the archetypal company of the German Mittelstand—the swath of mid-sized, family-owned companies, seen as the backbone of the industrial economy.

Mr. Rosenfeld wants to change that.

Stefan Spindler, the head of Schaeffler Industrial, told Handelsblatt it is a tough moment to launch a revival in his sector. “Classic industrial sectors are displaying ongoing weak growth,” he said.

Low commodity prices are holding back investment in extractive industries, and this means less demand for things like Schaeffler conveyor systems. “In the coming years, overall market growth is likely to be subdued,” said Mr. Spindler.

But Schaeffler hopes to overcome obstacles with a dual-pronged approach. On the one hand, rigorous implementation of the Core plan, meaning about 500 job losses in Germany and Europe. It does not plan any more substantial investment in Europe. “But we will really be sharpening up outside Europe — above all in China and the USA,” Mr. Spindler said.

On the other hand, it will also aim to grow through innovation.

Schaeffler has defined eight sectors as key areas of operation. These include classic areas such as wind power, raw materials, aerospace, and railways, but also more exotic and surprising choices, like bicycles. The company has just developed an automatic gearing system for bicycles. “We want to expand the business across urban mobility as a whole: and that’s not just about cars,” Mr. Spindler said.

Schaeffler managers are excited to see if new areas, like bikes, can actually take off. But the wind industry is no experiment: it has central strategic significance. In the southern German city of Schweinfurt, Schaeffler has built a testing facility for the enormous bearings used in wind turbines: these weigh in at seven tons, and are nearly 3 meters (10ft) in diameter.

At this year’s WindEnergy exhibition in Hamburg, the company presented further technical advances, including extra-robust spherical roller bearings. The company is also developing a method for calculating the remaining lifespan of antifriction bearings. For owners of wind farms, these inventions promise real improvements in turbine maintenance.

The wind power sector is consolidating quickly, with the recent merger of Gamesa and Siemens only one example of an industry-wide trend. The sector has flourished in recent years, though Mr. Spindler said the growth will inevitably level off. The most interesting growth potential may ultimately lie in areas such as maintenance and services.

Schaeffler is many ways the archetypal company of the German Mittelstand — the swath of mid-sized, family-owned companies viewed as the backbone of the industrial economy.

With roots in the 19th-century invention of ball-bearings, it is now a high-tech company employing 85,000 people in 50 countries, but still based in the small Bavarian towns of Herzogenaurach and Schweinfurt, and still majority owned by the Schaeffler family.

Like other German industrial companies, Schaeffler faces the challenges of rapid globalization, industrial digitization, and a volatile financial environment

At first glance, Schaeffler’s Schweinfurt factory looks very Old Economy indeed: a tall brick chimney, a lot of steel and heavy trucks. But behind the scenes, digitization is a crucial theme for Schaeffler’s industrial division.

“We see great potential in digitization-related services,” Mr. Spindler said. The company is working on bearings with inbuilt digital sensors, which can be hooked up to a separate monitoring system. The idea is no longer to sell a product-in-a-box, but instead to offer a complete package with service, and where possible, performance guarantees.

We want industry to be a second pillar of strength for Schaeffler.

STEFAN SPINDLER

CEO, SCHAEFFLER INDUSTRIAL

At InnoTrans, the rail industry fair, Schaeffler exhibited a monitoring system with cloud connectivity, developed for rail transportation. Here too, sensors in the bearings measure noise, temperature and rotation speed. As well as in-house innovation, the company is considering takeovers in these sectors: “We are currently working on some smaller acquisitions,” said Mr. Spindler.

Mr. Rosenfeld recently told Handelsblatt the company was again open to acquisitions. In recent years, the focus was very much on reducing the enormous debt burden from the Continental takeover. “We are now in a situation where we have genuine financial flexibility,” said Mr. Rosenfeld. In terms of strategic orientation it was important, he added, to strengthen the company’s technology and make some purchases here and there. But Schaeffler will not be forking out billions: industry insiders suggest acquisitions would be at the level of hundreds of millions of euros.

Mr. Spindler clearly shares his boss’s optimism about the industrial division. He wants to see it restored to its rightful place in the company: “We want industry to be a second pillar of strength for Schaeffler,” he said

Volvo CEO: Strict emissions laws will force European carmakers to stop making diesel vehicles in next 15 years

{https://global.handelsblatt.com/edition/523/ressort/companies-markets/article/volvo-ceo-predicts-the-death-of-diesel}

Increasingly stringent emissions laws will force European automakers to stop manufacturing diesel vehicles in the next 15 years, the chief executive of Swedish automaker Volvo told Handelsblatt in an interview.

“Diesel is becoming more and more expensive,” Håkan Samuelsson said. “We will have to rely on an alternative.”

Mr. Samuelsson said Volvo will unveil an electric car in 2019 and plans to have 1 million of the vehicles on the road within six years.

“In Europe, we won’t see pure internal combustion engines anymore in 15 years,” he said.

The company is moving towards autonomous driving, and electromobility: the two areas where most European car makers see the best returns.

Volvo, which is owned by Chinese company Geely, recently was able to sign a widely-acclaimed collaborative agreement with ride-hailing company Uber, to deliver self-driving cars equipped with technology from Uber.

Mr. Samuelsson said that by 2020 or 2021, autonomous driving will be possible on motorways.

If we are viewed as a luxury brand in Germany, then we can present ourselves everywhere with higher credibility.

HÅKAN SAMUELSSON

CEO, VOLVO

With the simple Scandinavian design of its all-terrain vehicles, Volvo has been able to retain the loyalty of a core of customers. But the company has to attract new buyers in order not to remain a niche player, and is targeting Germany.

“Germany is a key market,” he said. “If we are viewed as a luxury brand in Germany, then we can present ourselves everywhere with higher credibility.”

Mr. Samuelsson, who used to run German truck manufacturer MAN, feels at home in Germany, but he is realistic about Volvo’s chances. He doesn’t expect Volvo to overtake the German premium manufacturers.

“But there are customers who want something else besides an Audi, BMW or Mercedes,” he said.

He hopes to sell 40,000 cars in Germany this year.

Mr. Samuelsson’s company has just introduced the V90 Cross Country, a mixture of sports-utility vehicle and limousine. Volvo’s range of models has been updated. This year, it expects sales to increase by some 10 percent to more than half a million. It’s targeting sales of 800,000 cars by 2020. At that point Volvo will need new factories and models, he said.

Top management change and a wide-ranging cost-savings programme transform the Nestlé investment case. Not only should margin expansion accelerate but the likelihood of value-creating portfolio change has also materially increased. Over the last 20 years, Nestlé has achieved an annual TSR of 12%. We are now far more confident it can at least sustain this out to 2020. Buy.

All eyes on 29 September AGM and Vivendi’s hidden agenda