VW shareholder calls for removal of chief executive Müller
One of Germany’s leading investors has called for Volkswagen to replace its newly appointed chief executive and chairman, saying only outside leadership can restore trust in the scandal-hit carmaker.
VW replaced its chief executive just days after it admitted cheating on US emissions tests, but the new leader, Matthias Müller, has been at the VW group for almost 40 years. The company’s new chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch had been finance director for more than a decade.
Ingo Speich, a senior portfolio manager at Union Investment, Germany’s third-largest asset manager, told the Financial Times that both choices had further damaged confidence in the company.
“It would be far better to have new, fresh people in the management board and the supervisory board to gain back trust from the capital markets,” he said.
Union Investment is a top 15 investor in VW’s preference shares with a 0.5 per cent stake. It manages €250bn of assets in total.
Mr Speich’s statement is the most vocal intervention from a shareholder in the two-month-old scandal and reflects increasing market dissatisfaction with the German carmaker. VW shares have dropped 70 per cent since US regulators accused the carmaker of cheating on emissions tests.
“It’s all about trust. From the capital market’s point of view the company is not communicating well and there is a lack of trust . . . We are disappointed by the personnel decisions VW took and the information they provided,” he added.
Investors have been frustrated with what they see as minimal communication from the carmaker over the 12m cars affected by twin scandals into nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide emissions.
Many have focused on the supervisory board, where only one of its 20 members is independent from the company and its shareholders. Mr Pötsch’s nomination as chairman last month drew heavy criticism from many minority investors.
But Mr Speich is the first large shareholder publicly to turn his fire on Mr Müller, who headed the Porsche brand before being charged with leading VW out of the scandal.
“Mr Müller was part of VW before. In addition, he was head of Porsche and Porsche also used diesel engines. OK, of course, they were from the VW brand but he is also involved in this case,” Mr Speich said.
Mr Müller, who is trying to improve the company’s culture after complaints that his predecessor Martin Winterkorn ran the carmaker like a dictatorship, is seeking to encourage internal whistleblowers. New guidelines likely to be published very soon will offer impunity to workers that come forward.
The guidelines come after one VW worker gave information to the internal investigation into the scandal that led to the disclosure that the company had understated the CO2 emissions on 800,000 cars and exaggerated their fuel efficiency.
Mr Speich said VW should follow the example of Siemens, which reacted to a bribery scandal in 2006-2007 by appointing company outsiders as chief executive and chairman.
VW did not immediately comment.