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☆ Audi names Volkswagen strategy chief Doellner as new CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

FRANKFURT, June 29 (Reuters) - Volkswagen's (VOWG_p.DE) Audi named the German group's strategy chief as its new CEO on Thursday, as the luxury carmaker seeks to catch up with rivals in the dash towards electrification, including in China, the world's top car market. Gernot Doellner, who replaces Markus Duesmann, will become CEO with effect from September, Audi said, after the luxury automaker's supervisory board passed a resolution on Thursday. Doellner is a Volkswagen Group veteran who joined the company as a doctoral student in 1993 and rose through the ranks to become head of product development at Porsche. He headed up the Panamera series from 2011 to 2018 and became head of product strategy at Volkswagen AG in 2021. "Audi is a fantastic company with a rich history," Doellner said, adding: "I look forward to shaping the company's future together with the entire team at Audi."

Persons: Gernot Doellner, Markus Duesmann, Doellner, Oliver Blume's, Bentley, Peter Bosch, Christina Amann, Jan Schwartz, Ilona Wissenbach, Christoph Steitz, Victoria Waldersee, Tom Sims, Emma Rumney, Hans Seidenstuecker Organizations: Audi, Volkswagen Group, Porsche, Volkswagen AG, Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes, Benz, Thomson Locations: FRANKFURT, China

☆ VW to fire top executives at software unit Cariad, source says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Jan Schwartz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The unit - set up under former VW group CEO Herbert Diess -has exceeded its budget and failed to meet goals, contributing to Diess' departure and replacement by Oliver Blume last September. A VW spokesperson said the German company was analysing Cariad and its projects. A number of decisions have been made, but no decisions on personnel, the spokesperson said, adding that Cariad and vehicle software development remained integral to Volkswagen's group strategy. The problems at Cariad have delayed work on important new vehicle models Porsche e-Macan and Audi Q6 e-tron. The planned launch of company-wide structural car software, initially designed to enable the fourth of five levels of autonomous driving from 2026, has been postponed by two years.

☆ Volkswagen's $2 bln Trinity electric vehicle plant in doubt
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Jan Schwartz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Volkswagen, the world's second-biggest carmaker, had planned to officially start production of its flagship electric sedan at the new factory in 2026. Manager Magazine reported that Blume wanted to delay this until 2030. The SSP model platform planned for the whole group will probably no longer be launched with the Trinity plant as originally planned, the magazine reported. It was too early for concrete statements as Volkswagen wants to decide on its revised investment plans in February, the source told Reuters. Volkwagen's supervisory board in March approved 2 billion euros ($2.07 billion) for the new Trinity factory, with construction due to start in spring 2023.

☆ Energy crisis dims festive sparkle in Europe's shops
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Mimosa Spencer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

PARIS, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Retailers in Europe are having to strike a delicate balancing act with this year's Christmas displays: how to create enough festive sparkle to loosen cash-strapped customers' purse-strings, while acknowledging the impact of the energy crisis. However, the energy crisis has accelerated plans to "reduce consumption to be a good citizen both socially and environmentally", he added. He said the store was moving faster to reach its goal of shifting entirely to LED lighting and began turning lights off at night in September. "It makes a big difference," said Eleanore de Boysson, region president of Europe and the Middle East for LVMH's travel retail division DFS. Other "small" gestures include only partially lighting the store and its offices during early morning cleaning hours, she added.

☆ Scholz secures agreement allowing expats in China to use BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Andreas Rinke | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING, Nov 4 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced an agreement on Friday to let expatriates in China use the COVID-19 vaccine from Germany's BioNTech (22UAy.DE) and pressed for Beijing to allow the shot to be made freely available to Chinese citizens. On his first visit to China since becoming chancellor and the first by a G7 leader since the pandemic, Scholz said China and Germany had different approaches to fighting the virus but had a joint responsibility to eliminate it. The two countries "agreed on close cooperation in the fight against the pandemic," Scholz said in a briefing alongside the Chinese premier Li Keqiang. "This also includes an approval of the BioNTech vaccine for expatriates in China. I hope that the circle of eligible persons can soon be widened to a general free ability of the BioNTech vaccine," said Scholz.

☆ Investor Elliott has taken stake in Germany's Fresenius -Bloomberg
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Makiko Yamazaki | David Carnevali | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

FRANKFURT, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Elliott Investment Management has taken a stake in Fresenius SE (FREG.DE), seeking to potentially break up the diversified healthcare company, Bloomberg cited people familiar with the matter as saying. Fresenius and Elliott were not immediately available for comment. Shares in the company, which is controlled by charitable trust Else Kroener Fresenius-Stiftung, were up 9% at 1202 GMT. Fresenius controls the world's largest dialysis company Fresenius Medical Care (FMEG.DE). Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Ludwig Burger, Patricia Weiss and Hans Seidenstuecker, editing by Kirsti KnolleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Germany agrees 200 bln euro package to shield against surging energy prices
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Holger Hansen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Lisi NiesnerBERLIN, Sept 29 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz set out a 200 billion euro ($194 billion) "defensive shield" on Thursday to protect companies and consumers against the impact of soaring energy prices. Europe's biggest economy is trying to cope with surging gas and electricity costs caused largely by a collapse in Russian gas supplies to Europe, which Moscow has blamed on Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine in February. To this end, we are setting up a large defensive shield," said Scholz, outlining the package. Finance Minister Christian Lindner has previously said he wants to comply with the limit next year. However, the need for the levy came into question after the government's decision to nationalise Uniper (UN01.DE), Germany's biggest Russian gas importer.

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