The group will increase its net profit to almost 16 billion euros in 2023.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Hamburg Despite the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis, Europe’s largest carmaker Volkswagen is more optimistic about the coming fiscal year. For 2023, the group is forecasting a return on sales of between 7.5 and 8.5 percent. At the lower end of the range, that’s half a percentage point more than forecast for last year.
Sales are expected to increase by between ten and 15 percent, as VW announced on Friday. For deliveries, the target for 2023 is 9.5 million vehicles. In the previous year, VW had brought just under 8.3 million cars to customers.
The Wolfsburg company increased its net profit by around three percent to 15.8 billion euros last year.
The shareholders should benefit from this. Instead of EUR 7.50 per ordinary and EUR 7.56 per preferred share as in the previous year, EUR 8.70 and EUR 8.76 respectively are to flow to the shareholders, including the largest holding company Porsche SE of the Porsche and Piëch families, the state of Lower Saxony and the emirate Qatar.
The VW share was coveted in view of the news: after the figures became known, their price jumped by more than eleven percent at times to a daily high of 143.12 euros and finally closed 10.56 percent more firmly at 142.20 in Xetra trading Euro. Yesterday it ended trading at EUR 128.62.
“Today’s results are further proof of the solid financial basis on which we are consistently implementing our strategy,” explained CFO Arno Antlitz.
Volkswagen published the first key data from its balance sheet in early February. Accordingly, the inflow of cash last year almost halved from 8.6 to five billion euros because many cars had to be produced in stock due to a lack of semiconductors. The funds tied up were significantly higher than expected.
For this year, the people of Lower Saxony are assuming that the trend will be reversed, as stocks are decreasing and production is running smoothly again. Because of the uncertain economy, however, customers are now staying away, which poses new problems for the group.
Own work for the Scout brand
The Volkswagen Group is building its own plant for the Scout brand in America. The US company announced this on Friday evening. The production facility will be located in the US state of South Carolina, where it will build next-generation trucks and rugged SUVs based on the legendary Scout vehicles.
Volkswagen acquired the Scout brand when it took over US truck manufacturer Navistars. The brand is considered an icon for pickups in America.
The Volkswagen supervisory board met on Friday to approve the five-year plan for investments and the occupancy of the plants. CEO Oliver Blume had already presented large parts of this to the committee in mid-February. The Handelsblatt reported.
As reported from corporate circles, it was also about larger investments in North America and China. The decision about a new battery cell plant in North America, which is said to be built in Canada, is likely to be particularly capital-intensive.
At a conference call with journalists on Friday afternoon, Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz said: Volkswagen is counting on “tailwind” from the Inflation Reduction Act, America’s billion-euro subsidy program for climate-friendly technologies. “This gives us even more support in our strategy to localize production.”
He did not comment on the deliberations of the supervisory board on a battery cell factory in North America. However, Antlitz indicated that the group would need fewer than six battery cell factories in the future to achieve a production capacity of 240 GWh, which Volkswagen is aiming for in Europe by 2030.
So far, Volkswagen has been set to build six battery cell factories in Europe by the end of the decade. A first is already being built in Salzgitter, Lower Saxony, a second is to be built in Spain near Valencia, and another location in Eastern Europe is planned.
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