The net cash flow in 2022 was significantly lower than in the previous year.
(Photo: Reuters)
Dusseldorf In the past fiscal year, Volkswagen missed an important self-imposed target in terms of liquidity. The group explained this in an ad hoc announcement on Tuesday evening. Accordingly, the net cash flow of five billion euros in the past year was well below the 8.6 billion euros achieved in the previous year. Delivery bottlenecks in particular are said to have caused a sharp decline in cash inflow.
For CEO Oliver Blume, it is the first time that he has not achieved an important key figure as CEO of VW. Blume has been in office since September 2022 and, in addition to the VW Group, also heads the sports car manufacturer Porsche, which went public in autumn 2022.
Based on this model, other brands and units of the Group are currently developing so-called virtual “equity stories”, i.e. simulated IPOs. In January, Blume said in the Handelsblatt that, in addition to the key return figures, his focus was “particularly on the net cash flow and the break-even point”. A high cash balance is seen on the stock exchange as an indicator that VW is making real money selling its vehicles and has sufficient liquidity.
The low net cash flow is “mainly due to the unstable supply situation throughout 2022 and disruptions in the logistics chains, especially at the end of the year,” the statement said. For 2023, Volkswagen expects the situation to reverse for the most part over the course of the year. It is primarily external factors that are financially clouding the VW boss’s first year.
On the other hand, Blume should be satisfied with the consolidated sales and the consolidated operating result before special items. In the Group, these rose to EUR 279 billion (previous year: EUR 250.2 billion) and around EUR 22.5 billion (previous year: EUR 20 billion) and were therefore largely in line with the analysts’ expectations. Volkswagen expects a return on sales of around 8.1 percent. This is also roughly within the limits.
Volkswagen: More profit despite fewer cars sold
A lack of chips and parts at VW meant that the group was able to sell significantly fewer vehicles overall in 2022 than usual. Global deliveries in 2022 fell by seven percent year-on-year to almost 8.26 million units, as VW announced in January. The only growth region was Asia-Pacific – albeit without VW’s most important market, China.
At the end of the year, Volkswagen had total net liquidity in the automotive division of around 43 billion euros (previous year: 26.7 billion euros). This also includes around 16 billion cash inflows from the Porsche IPO in September. VW will publish its annual report with the final figures in mid-March. VW shares fell in premarket trading.
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