Volkswagen shares hit 11-week highs this Friday, rising about 6% and having advanced as much as 7% during the session. At 10:19 am, the shares were trading at 81.65 euros each, at a time when the DAX index remained stable on the Frankfurt stock exchange. Investors expressed enthusiasm and relief after the approval, on the previous day, of a restructuring plan by the supervisory board of Europe's largest car manufacturer.
The supervisory board unanimously approved the so-called "Future Plan 2030," presented by Volkswagen's executive team. The plan includes cutting approximately 50,000 jobs across the group, including management positions, and aims to make the Volkswagen Group and its brands more efficient, more competitive, and better positioned for the future.
Deutsche Bank analysts described the approval as a "big surprise for nearly all investors," noting that practically all investors contacted in the previous days considered Volkswagen "simply impossible to fix." In the German bank's view, the result represents "a fundamental breakthrough and much better than feared," eliminating investors' main concern about the company's ability to make the difficult decisions necessary.
Volkswagen faces pressure due to heavy tariffs in the United States, declining sales in China, and the entry of Asian rivals into the European market. The group's operating margin fell from 7.9% in 2022 to 3.8% in the first half. Despite Friday's gains, the shares have accumulated a 22.2% loss since the beginning of the year. Deutsche Bank warned that the problems "don't get solved overnight" and that the approval "marks only the beginning of the next phase, with execution being critical."
