Deliveries should be “significantly” and sales “significantly” above the previous year's figure.
The Volkswagen Group has left the Corona low behind for the time being and also closed the difficult year 2020 with a billion profit. After the slump due to sluggish sales, plant closings and damaged supply chains in the second quarter, the Wolfsburg-based company was able to turn the meanwhile red numbers into positive figures. In the end, Europe's largest automaker earned 8.8 billion euros after taxes, according to the key data presented on Friday.
Significant declines
The operating result before special items such as legal costs to deal with the diesel crisis landed at 10.6 billion euros. Sales amounted to EUR 222.9 billion, and deliveries reached the mark of 9.3 million vehicles. At the end of the year, sales had increased again, especially for electric and hybrid cars.
Compared to 2019, however, the overall figures mean significant declines for the group. In the year before the pandemic, the VW Group had post-tax earnings of 14 billion euros and sales of over a quarter of a trillion (252.6 billion) euros. With almost 11 million deliveries, it had also held the global top position ahead of Toyota – this was reversed in 2020. In day-to-day business, the result was almost twice as high in the previous year (19.3 billion euros).
Surprisingly, the group does not want to cut back on the distribution to shareholders. The dividend for the past year should amount to 4.86 euros per preferred share. That is the same as last year and the year before. According to the Articles of Association, ordinary shareholders receive 6 cents less per share than preference shareholders.
Unsafe situation
In return, the advantages have no voting rights. Holding Porsche SE controls more than half of the ordinary shares for the owner families Porsche and Piëch. 20 percent of the shares belong to the state of Lower Saxony, a state fund from Qatar owns a further 17 percent.
With a view to the coming months, VW remains cautious because of the uncertain corona situation. One could go further – “subject to a successful containment of the Covid-19 pandemic”. CFO Frank Witter also emphasized: “We want to take the strong momentum from the significantly better second half of the year into the current year.”
