German auto giant Volkswagen AG on Friday said it raced back into the black last year as car sales hit an all-time high, in the latest sign of its “dieselgate” scandal fading into the rear-view mirror.
However, the costly fallout from the emissions cheating crisis also prompted the firm to announce a cap on executive earnings, in a major departure from Volkswagen’s notoriously generous pay packages.
Under the new rules, payouts are to be more closely linked to the group’s financial performance with the chief executive’s remuneration limited to 10 million euros (US$10.6 million).
Other board members will see their annual pay capped at 5.5 million euros, VW said after a meeting of the supervisory board at its Wolfsburg, Germany, headquarters.
The changes come as VW aims to clean up its image after it admitted 18 months ago to having installed software in 11 million diesel engines worldwide that could dupe emissions tests.
In a sign that the tide is turning, the automaker reported a net profit of 5.1 billion euros last year, recovering from a stinging 1.6 billion euro loss in the aftermath of the cheating revelations in 2015.
“While the past fiscal year posed major challenges for us, despite the crisis the group’s operating business gave its best-ever performance,” chief executive Matthias Mueller said in a statement.
The VW group — which includes the brands Porsche, Audi and Skoda — beat analyst expectations with record revenues of 217.3 billion euros last year, up about 2 percent on a year earlier.
Underlying or operating profit rose to 7.1 billion euros, from a loss of 4.06 billion in 2015, it said.
Despite the damage to its reputation because of dieselgate, the group delivered a record 10.3 million vehicles last year, driven by strong demand in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
The result meant VW overtook rival Toyota Motor Corp to become the world’s top selling automaker.
For last year, the group said it planned to raise dividend payouts from 0.11 euros to 2 euros for ordinary shareholders, and from 0.17 euros to 2.06 euros for preferred shareholders.
Looking ahead, VW said it expected the upward trend to continue this year, penciling in a 4 percent rise in revenues while car sales look set to increase “moderately.”
“As the figures show, Volkswagen is very solidly positioned in both operational and financial terms. This makes us optimistic about the future,” Mueller said.
To help it turn the page on dieselgate, VW has embarked on a massive revamp.
It plans to slim down by shedding about 30,000 jobs by 2020 as well as shifting its focus to new, cleaner technologies such as self-driving and electric cars.
The group has committed to paying out more than US$22 billion in fines and compensation to drivers, dealers and authorities in the US, but it has not offered any compensation to affected European drivers.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced
Pegatron Corp (和碩), an iPhone assembler for Apple Inc, is to spend NT$5.64 billion (US$186.82 million) to acquire HTC Corp’s (宏達電) factories in Taoyuan and invest NT$578.57 million in its India subsidiary to expand manufacturing capacity, after its board approved the plans on Wednesday. The Taoyuan factories would expand production of consumer electronics, and communication and computing devices, while the India investment would boost production of communications devices and possibly automotive electronics later, a Pegatron official told the Taipei Times by telephone yesterday. Pegatron expects to complete the Taoyuan factory transaction in the third quarter, said the official, who declined to be
RSS