Black Sheep Ferdinand Pich Reappears as Porsche SE Attempts to Ease Tensions
Porsche Automobil Holding SE has denied it intentionally misled investors over the severity of the VW emissions cheating crisis in 2015. With Volkswagen AG’s Chief Executive Officer Matthias Müller now personally caught up in the growing market manipulation investigation, it was only a matter of time before Porsche Automobil Holding released a statement to assure investors the board had done its job appropriately.
Müller’s joining of former VW CEO Martin Winterkorn, supervisory board chair Hans Dieter Poetsch, and board member Herbert Diess as the focus of government probes has made the situation appear fishier than a trawler’s top deck. However, at this week’s annual shareholders meeting, Poetsch said he is convinced none of the board members are guilty of any wrongdoing — presumably, he included himself in the statement.
“We perceive all legal claims against Porsche SE relating to the diesel issue as unfounded,” he explained.
Unfounded or not, the board has a lot on its plate right now. Members are having to cope with separate investigations coming from Stuttgart and Braunschweig-based prosecutors while fielding questions from annoyed investors. In total, the holdings firm is facing 165 individual diesel-related lawsuits from investors for a combined sum of just over 1 billion dollars. That sum is entirely separate from the billions Volkswagen was forced to pay by the U.S. government and the countless lawsuits from disgruntled customers across the globe.
Porsche SE, which is almost entirely controlled by members of the Porsche-Piëch family, is also still reeling from an internal power struggle after long-time VW patriarch Ferdinand Piech alleged his cousin Wolfgang Porsche and other board members knowingly withheld information from the public. Most of the family has since turned on Piëch, and he has agreed to sell his 14.7 percent stake to his amazingly rich relatives.
According to Germany’s Stuttgarter Zeitung, Ferdinand Piëch was in attendance at Tuesday’s shareholders meeting, despite having been absent from the event for the past two years. When asked how long he would remain on the board, he remained quiet as Wolfgang Porsche explained that his cousin had agreed to “remain available” until the sale of his shares could be finalized. Curiously, nobody asked if Piëch was just there to silently gloat.
[Image: Volkswagen AG]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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