Porsche wants to throw two top managers out-VW subsidiary in the crisis

The VW subsidiary Porsche wants to get rid of CFO Lutz Meschke and sales board Detlev from Platen. Supervisory Council leader Wolfgang Porsche was commissioned to have talks with the two board members about an amicable premature resignation from the board, the sports car maker in Stuttgart said in a mandatory announcement for the stock exchange.

Meschke is deputy chairman and board member for finance and IT, from Platen is a board member for sales and marketing. The “Bild” newspaper had previously reported about it. A reason for the planned step was not mentioned in the message. A spokeswoman for the car maker also didn’t want to give any details. Porsche’s share price had gushed down in the past. The sports car manufacturer is fighting with weak shops in China.

The background for the planned termination of contract with the CFO are therefore alleged ambitions of Meschkes on the CEO at Porsche, according to “Bild”. The relationship between the 58-year-old and CEO Oliver Blume has seemed tense for a long time. Especially since flower has been the boss at Europe’s largest car manufacturer Volkswagen.

Now, according to Supervisory Board, the CFO is said to have lost the backing of the two owners of Porsche and Piëch. Meschke has been a member of the board since 2009. In 2015, the business economist was appointed deputy chairman of the board. At the same time, he is a board member of Porsche Automobil Holding SE with responsibility for participation management.

Porsche SE has the majority of voting rights at the Volkswagen Group and is also directly involved in the Sportwagenbauer Porsche AG. A spokesman for Porsche SE did not want to comment on the processes at the sports car manufacturer and possible effects on the investment company.

The 61 -year -old sales manager of Platen has been a board member since 2015. He had been under pressure for a long time because of the China business. The sports car manufacturer, the majority belongs to the VW group, had sold fewer cars last year than in 2023. The global deliveries fell by three percent to around 310,700 vehicles. According to the information, there was a strong minus of 28 percent in China.

In the first nine months of last year, sales fell by 5.2 percent to 28.56 billion euros. The operational result collapsed by 26.7 percent to 4.04 billion euros. The operational return on sales was only 14.1 percent. In the same period last year it was 18.3 percent.

In summer, Porsche surprisingly had to reduce his forecast for 2024 due to flood damage from an aluminum supplier and has expected 14 to 15 percent margin since then. Previously, the target corridor was 15 to 17 percent. The group had already set itself reserved destinations for 2024 – among other things because of several model changes that cause high costs at the beginning.