Financial News

TRATON SE shareholders have approved all items on the agenda for this year’s Annual General Meeting by a large majority. One of the votes resolved on a dividend payout of €1.50 per share for fiscal year 2023, more than twice as high as last year’s figure of €0.70. In addition, the shareholders approved the actions of the members of the Executive and Supervisory Boards for fiscal year 2023 as well as the submitted remuneration report.

TRATON SE will be uplisted from the SDAX to the MDAX, which tracks the performance of the 50 largest companies following the DAX stocks on the Regulated Market of the Frankfurt stock exchange. According to the information provided by Deutsche Börse, TRATON’s admission to this key stock market index will be effective from June 24, 2024.

At the Annual General Meeting of Volkswagen AG, the shareholders followed the proposal of the Board of Management and Supervisory Board and resolved by a majority of 99,99 % to pay an increased dividend of EUR 9.00 per ordinary share and EUR 9.06 per preference share for the 2023 financial year. This corresponds to a payout ratio of 28 per cent and an increase of EUR 0.30 per share. Volkswagen AG is distributing a total of EUR 4.5 billion to its shareholders for the 2023 financial year.

The Board of Management of the Volkswagen Group has decided to make all-electric entry-level mobility more widespread. The Brand Group Core will bring affordable electric vehicles from Europe, for Europe, into the market. The world premiere is scheduled for 2027. Volkswagen has been working for some time to offer compact, particularly inexpensive electric vehicles in the price range of around 20,000 euros. In this way, the Group's volume brands are fulfilling their promise to create mobility for all and continue to facilitate the entry into e-mobility. With its brand diversity, the Volkswagen Group also assumes a social responsibility for affordable, sustainable mobility.

2024 will be a demanding year for the Audi Group. The challenging market environment and supply bottlenecks, especially for V6 and V8 engines, had a particularly negative impact on operating profit in the first quarter of the year. The company also has to manage numerous product ramp-ups. Revenue reached €13.7 billion in the first quarter of the year, while operating profit amounted to €466 million. The operating margin was 3.4 percent. In the first three months of the year, the Brand Group Progressive delivered 402,048 automobiles to customers – a decline of 4.7 percent. The demand for fully electric models, however, increased by 3 percent. Audi registered a significant increase of 13.7 percent in China, with 156,082 models delivered.

The Brand Group Core delivered robust financial results in the first quarter of 2024. With stable vehicle sales and slightly lower sales revenue, the Brand Group Core reported a significant year-on-year increase in operating profit and operating return. At 6.4%, operating return was well within the target corridor of 6-7% for 2024. All brands contributed to this achievement, reporting higher returns on the basis of focused cost management as well as increased implementation of synergy and efficiency measures within the Brand Group. The financial performance in the first quarter felt the impact of offsetting effects – these included, for example, the abrupt termination of government incentives for electric cars in the German market and the related discount measures at the beginning of the year. Furthermore, there was high depreciation attributable to investments in product campaigns and the related ramp-up of electric products.

Porsche AG has got off to a vigorous and forward-looking start to the challenging 2024 financial year. In this year of product launches, the sports car manufacturer is renewing four out of its six model lines. The first quarter was marked by the ramp-ups of the third model generation of the Panamera and the new Taycan. In addition, large-scale investments have been made in digitalization and research and development. Accordingly, the Porsche Group recorded an expected decline in sales and earnings in the first three months. At the end of the quarter, Group sales revenue amounted to 9.01 billion euros (previous year: 10.10 billion euros). Group operating profit was 1.28 billion euros (previous year: 1.84 billion euros). Group sales revenue came in at 14.2 per cent (previous year: 18.2 per cent).

The TRATON GROUP reported a successful start to 2024 and increased its sales revenue, adjusted operating result, and adjusted operating return on sales in the first quarter despite a slight decrease in unit sales. The TRATON GROUP brands sold a total of 81,100 (3M 2023: 84,600) vehicles between January and March, a slight year-on-year decline of 4%. At the same time, sales revenue grew 5% to €11.8 billion (3M 2023: €11.2 billion) thanks to a favorable product and market mix and improved unit price realization. Accounting for 19% (3M 2023: 20%) of total sales revenue, the vehicle services business made a considerable contribution to business performance. At 66,400 (3M 2023: 68,500) vehicles, the Company’s incoming orders in the first quarter of the year were solid and thus only slightly down by 3% year-on-year. The book-to-bill ratio, or the ratio of incoming orders to unit sales, was 0.8 in the first three months. This meant that unit sales were higher than incoming orders, allowing order backlog to continue to return to normal. At €1,106 million (3M 2023: €935 million), adjusted operating result was up significantly on the prior-year period. In light of the 5% increase in sales revenue, adjusted operating return on sales rose by 1 percentage point in the first quarter of 2024 to 9.4%.

Volkswagen launches the next phase of its transformation in China. At its China Capital Markets Day in Beijing, Volkswagen Group presented its strategy update for the Chinese market. The focus is on its target to strengthen tech capabilities and reduce costs in the strongly growing market. The Group plans to achieve cost parity with local competition in the compact car segment by 2026 and gain further momentum through a re-aligned strategy and an efficiency program that was launched already. In addition, the company underlined its commitment to its “in China, for China” strategy: It presented measures to cater even better to the needs of Chinese customers, accelerate model developments and time-to-market as well as significantly reduce costs. In addition, the aim is to better harness the innovative power of the market and increase local value creation through more in-house development capabilities and strong local partnerships. As a result, the Group aims to strengthen its position as the #1 international OEM in the Chinese market and has set ambitious targets until 2030: Approximately 4 million vehicles sold and growth in proportionate operating result to around EUR 3.0 billion, including the fully consolidated Anhui joint venture.

The Volkswagen Group increased its deliveries in the first quarter of 2024 by 3 percent to 2.10 million vehicles. The main growth drivers were China (+8 percent), South America (+14 percent) and North America (+5 percent). Vehicles with combustion engines increased by 4 percent to 1.97 million units, overcompensating the slight decline of 3 percent to 136,400 all-electric vehicles (BEV). In this segment, strong growth in China (+91 percent) did not fully offset the decline in Europe (-24 percent). However, incoming orders for BEVs in Western Europe developed positively from January to March. More than twice as many all-electric models were ordered as in the same period last year (+154 percent), so that the BEV order bank currently stands at around 160,000 vehicles.

The Audi Group has achieved a solid result in the 2023 fiscal year under challenging economic conditions. Revenue rose by 13.1 percent to €69.9 billion, the operating profit was €6.3 billion, and the operating margin was 9.0 percent. Net cash flow was nearly on par with the previous year at €4.7 billion. With numerous new models, Audi will significantly strengthen and expand its product portfolio in the coming years: The world premiere of the fully electric Audi Q6 e-tron, the first model on the new Premium Platform Electric (PPE), heralds a series of product launches. More than 20 new models are planned for 2024 and 2025.

The Brand Group Core delivered robust financial results in 2023. Higher volume and price effects, improved availability of parts and lower fixed costs had a positive effect, while higher product costs and the deconsolidation of Volkswagen Group Rus had a negative impact on the result. The global market and competitive environment remains challenging. The Brand Group Core is working on further stabilizing its performance with a view to improving its resilience against external factors, in particular given the slower development of the e-mobility market in Europe.

Volkswagen Group achieved robust financial results in a challenging environment in 2023. Thanks to progress in electrification and a flexible product strategy, the Group successfully is able to meet customers’ needs worldwide. At the same time, 2023 was a year of restructuring for Volkswagen Group. In many areas of the TOP-10 program, the Group has made progress faster than originally planned. With more than 30 new products, 2024 will be the year of world premieres, with highlights including the high-performance all-electric vehicles based on the new PPE premium platform. Volkswagen Group is therefore confident about the current year and an accelerated ramp-up from 2025 onwards. The overarching Group goal remains sustainable, value-creating growth.

Volkswagen Group achieved robust financial results in 2023. This was driven by a strong fourth quarter, with sales revenue of EUR 87 billion and an increase in operating profit of more then a quarter compared to the previous year. During the year, the Group made further progress with the implementation of its strategy and systematically pushed ahead with its restructuring. The focus was on customer-oriented products and compelling design, in addition to the strengthening of the regions, particularly China and North America. By introducing performance programs in all divisions, the Group has made notable strides towards a sustainable increase in profitability.

Volkswagen Group and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M) have signed the first supply agreement on components of Volkswagen´s MEB for Mahindra’s purpose-built electric platform INGLO, taking a definitive step further on their joint vision for e-mobility collaboration. The deal covers the supply of certain electric components as well as unified cells. With the agreement, Volkswagen and Mahindra are further deepening their collaboration which started with a partnering agreement and a term sheet in 2022. Both companies will continue to evaluate a potential expansion of the collaboration.

The Volkswagen Group is strengthening its Technical Development Board function in the China region as part of its “In China, for China” strategy. Thomas Ulbrich, former Member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen Brand for “New Mobility”, will head up Technical Development for the Group in China from April 1, 2024. In his new capacity, Ulbrich, who has already held two management positions for the Group in China, will continue to advance the technological localization of the portfolio. He succeeds Marcus Hafkemeyer, who – with his extensive experience of China – will support the company’s transformation in a new role in the Group.