Volkswagen warned Thursday that several months are needed to complete the investigation into the handling of pollutant emissions testing of its diesel vehicles, a scandal whose financial implications could threaten the credit rating of the manufacturer.
The executive committee of the German group supervisory board, which decided to postpone the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders scheduled on November 9, said further that the company will unveil next week technical solutions problem that it faces.
Volkswagen announced Tuesday it was preparing steps to modify diesel engines with the offending software, which could open the way to recall 11 million cars worldwide .
The board officially announced Thursday the arrival of Hans Dieter Pötsch CFO as Chairman of the Supervisory Board, that leaves Julia Kuhn-Piëch.
The Board has also proposed the designation of Frank Witter, head of Volkswagen’s financial activities, to the position of CFO, replacing Hans Dieter Pötsch group.
The manufacturer of the Supervisory Board met to discuss ways to strengthen the group’s finances but did not mention the possibility of selling assets or brands, told Reuters two sources close advice.
According to sources, the Board is concerned about a possible downgrade of the group, which would result in higher borrowing costs and affect its ability to regain the confidence of investors.
Raising capital by selling shares would become a likely option if the costs of the scandal exceeded a “critical level,” said one source.
Volkswagen abstained any comments
UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF CREDIT NOTE
The Standard & amp rating agency. Poor’s placed last week’s note VW negative outlook while Moody’s lowered its outlook highlighting the risk from the financial impact of the scandal.
The first European manufacturer has admitted to have used software to distort tests of emissions of its vehicles in the United States. The tests were also handled in Europe, said the German Ministry of Transport.
The case, revealed on September 18 by the US authorities of environmental protection, pushed last week CEO Winterkorn to resign, the former boss of Porsche, Matthias Müller, succeeding him as head of the group.
Martin Winterkorn is the subject of an investigation in connection a preliminary investigation into Volkswagen. Prosecutors in Braunschweig says Thursday it had no evidence of wrongful behavior on his part.
Volkswagen, which has already imposed a hiring freeze within its financial division and a team eliminated in the one of its plants engines, provisioned 6.5 billion euros to cover the costs of the case.
DEEMED CAPITAL INCREASE POSSIBLE
Some analysts believe that this will not be enough.
“The group has rather strong statements but also has a very cautious approach to its financing and its credit rating,” wrote this week in a note Max Warburton, Bernstein analyst .
“We believe that if the costs (of the scandal) in cash exceed 10 billion euros, a capital increase will be very likely,” he added.
The case threatens the reputation, excellent so far, the German automotive industry. BMW and Ford senior German officials wanted to defend it by saying Thursday at a conference in Berlin that their groups had been able to put in place measures to prevent a similar scandal.
The Volkswagen share lost more than a third of its value since the revelation of the scandal, which resulted in turmoil for the entire global automotive industry.
Always very volatile, the Volkswagen left Thursday under 1.1% to 96.67 euros in Frankfurt Stock Exchange until after winning over 5% in early trading.
(Myriam Rivet, Boucey Bertrand and Patrick Vignal for the French service, edited by Wilfrid Exbrayat)
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