Now two board members have to go

The weakening in the German auto industry continues. At the sports car manufacturer Porsche If you now draw consequences: the VW-Daughter Plans the conversion of the board. Head of the supervisory board Wolfgang Porsche If it had been commissioned to have discussions with two board members about an amicable premature resignation from the board, the sports car manufacturer in Stuttgart said in a mandatory announcement for the stock exchange.

Accordingly, it is Lutz Meschkethe deputy chairman and board member for finance and IT, as well as to Detlev from PlatenBoard member for sales and marketing. Before that had the Bild-Zeitung reports about it. Porsche’s share price had gushed down in the past. The sports car manufacturer is fighting with weak shops in China.

Meschke had ambitions on the CEO

Background for the planned termination of contract with the CFO are therefore loud Bild Alleged ambitions of Meschkes on the CEO at Porsche. The relationship between the 58-year-old and CEO Oliver Blume seems to be tense for a long time. Especially since flower, boss at Europe’s largest car manufacturer Volkswagen is.

According to the Supervisory Board, the CFO should probably also be the backing of the two owner families Porsche and Piëch have lost. Meschke has been a member of the board since 2009. In 2015, the business economist was appointed deputy chairman of the board. At the same time he is a board member of the Porsche car Holding With responsibility for the participation management.

Porsche SE has the majority of voting rights at the Volkswagen Group and is also at the sports car manufacturer Porsche AG directly involved. A spokesman for Porsche SE did not want to comment on the processes at the sports car manufacturer and possible effects on the investment company.

Strong minus in the China business

The 61 -year -old sales manager of Platen has been a board member since 2015. He had been under pressure for a long time because of the China business. The sports car manufacturer, who mostly belongs to the VW group, had sold fewer cars last year than in 2023. The global deliveries fell by three percent to around 310,700 vehicles. According to the information, there was a strong minus of 28 percent in China.

In the first nine months of last year, sales fell by 5.2 percent to 28.56 billion euros. The operational result collapsed by 26.7 percent to 4.04 billion euros. The operational return on sales was only 14.1 percent. In the same period last year it was 18.3 percent.

In summer, Porsche surprisingly had to reduce his forecast for 2024 due to flood damage from an aluminum supplier and has expected 14 to 15 percent margin since then. Previously, the target corridor was 15 to 17 percent. The group had already set itself reserved destinations for 2024 – among other things because of several model changes that cause high costs at the beginning.

Industry expert fears “Start of a wave of industrialization “

“It seems to be much worse around the German auto industry than we expect after the difficult year 2024,” estimates industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer the location. On the one hand, the young Chinese carmakers would snap away from the German premium brands. On the other hand, US President also does Donald Trump Porsche with high tariffs difficult.

Dudenhöffer’s future forecast does not expect the situation to be improved: “It looks like a long dry spell in the German auto industry and at the end of the dry spell the auto industry in Germany will be significantly smaller. What is no longer necessary in the next few years will no longer be built up in Germany the auto industry seems to be the beginning of a wave of industrialization in Germany. ”