VW's Preferred Shares Hover Near Yearly Lows as Restructuring Plans Widen Beyond Germany
Published on 08/11/2026 at 17:42 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The pressure building inside Volkswagen's boardroom has spilled into a broader strategic reckoning. Fresh reports suggest management is weighing the elimination of roughly 100,000 positions — about one-sixth of the global workforce — alongside a dramatic slimming of the model lineup to around 75 nameplates, roughly half the current offering. The aim: take a sledgehammer to production capacity across the group.
The proposals land barely 24 hours after the supervisory board pumped the brakes on a separate, equally aggressive cost-cutting push. Worker representatives on the oversight body had balked at the severity of planned plant closures and job reductions in Germany. Yet the widening scope of the new deliberations signals that the leadership's room for manoeuvre is shrinking by the week.
Anchor shareholder's patience wears thin
The most pointed pressure is coming from the top. Porsche SE, the holding company that controls 31.9 percent of Volkswagen's voting rights and 12.5 percent of Porsche AG, swung to a net loss of €2.2 billion in the first half of 2026, a stark reversal from the €949 million adjusted profit it booked in the same period a year earlier. The damage was driven by writedowns of €3 billion on its VW stake and a further €0.2 billion impairment on the Porsche AG holding.
Hans Dieter Pötsch, the Porsche SE chief executive, has responded by demanding "swift action" from the VW executive board to safeguard competitiveness. The holding company's own adjusted result fell 14.5 percent to €949 million, underscoring how directly the Wolfsburg crisis is hitting the family-owned investment vehicle.
At Volkswagen itself, the numbers are equally sobering. Net profit slumped by nearly a third in the first half, while global deliveries dropped 6.5 percent. The China business was the standout casualty, with sales collapsing 25.9 percent. The group also missed market expectations on operating margin in its second-quarter figures and trimmed its full-year revenue guidance.
A tale of two continents
While the battle over German plants and jobs intensifies, Volkswagen is simultaneously pushing ahead with an aggressive North American expansion. The group plans to launch its first US-built pickup truck before the end of the decade, with production expected at its Chattanooga, Tennessee facility. The strategic logic is clear: pickups accounted for nearly 20 percent of US auto sales in 2025, with an average list price of close to $70,000. VW currently holds just 4 percent of the American market.
The US push comes with a leadership change. Marco Schubert, currently Audi's sales chief, will take over the North American operations from Kjell Gruner as part of the strategic reset. The group also unveiled a refreshed Atlas Cross Sport for the US market on Monday, featuring new styling and a 282-horsepower engine — a signal that America remains an investment priority even as Europe faces austerity.
A possible partnership with Ford based on the MEB platform, drawing on the Amarok and Ranger models, has also been floated.
Job cuts already underway
The restructuring is not merely hypothetical. Volkswagen has already shed 50,000 positions, with a further 50,000 jobs and four German plants now on the line. The company's Zwickau facility is reducing headcount as electric-vehicle production there runs below capacity, reflecting weak demand for battery-powered models. The group is also reviewing its portfolio for niche models to offload — the Audi Q3 Sportback has been named as a potential candidate — as it concentrates on more profitable nameplates.
Analysts trim targets, hold ratings
The market's response to the deteriorating fundamentals has been measured. On July 28, several banks cut their price targets on VW's preferred shares following the weak quarterly numbers. HSBC lowered its target from €133 to €127, Deutsche Bank Research from €120 to €115, and Bank of America from €99 to €90 — all three maintaining "Buy" ratings. Berenberg Bank confirmed its €100 target with a positive recommendation on the same day.
The preferred shares closed Monday at €75.28, down 1.49 percent, and remain nearly flat on the latest headlines at €75.42. The stock has lost 27.72 percent since the start of the year, sitting just 8.99 percent above its 52-week low and a full 31 percent below the December high of €109.10.
Industry-wide margin squeeze
Volkswagen's troubles are compounded by a deteriorating sector-wide environment. The CAM report for the first half of 2026 shows average earnings per vehicle across 15 major manufacturers fell from €1,409 to €1,187. Industry-wide Ebit dropped 17.5 percent to €35.6 billion, even as revenue slipped just 1.4 percent. Study director Stefan Bratzel has called the divergence between revenue and profit an "alarm signal," with US tariffs and Chinese price competition weighing on the entire sector.
The stock's weekly decline of 2.11 percent reflects investor uncertainty about the outcome of a restructuring that must navigate factory-floor resistance, an impatient anchor shareholder and a market environment offering little respite. Thursday's analyst conference call on the first-half interim report will provide the next opportunity for management to clarify the path forward.
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