Martin Winterkorn Is Back At VW! Sort Of…

Contrary to what we initially thought, Winterkorn never left Volkswagen AG. While many are aware that Professor Dr. Martin Winterkorn has since stepped down from his position as CEO and as Chairman of the Board of Management of the 12-brand group Volkswagen AG following the ‘dieselgate’ scandal, Winterkorn is not completely out of Volkswagen yet.

Bloomberg revealed that the new CEO of Volkswagen AG, Mr. Matthias Matthias Muller, who is also the current Chairman of Porsche AG, is still indirectly reporting to Winterkorn via a complex shareholding structure.

Winterkorn is still the Chairman of the Board of Management of Porsche Automobil Holding SE, which owns 52.2 percent of Volkswagen AG.

We need to point out that Porsche Automobil Holding SE is a different company from Porsche AG.

Porsche AG represents the Porsche that we all know - the manufacturer of Porsche cars. Porsche Automobil Holding SE on the other hand, is an investment company which has interests in automotive dealerships (including non-Volkswagen Group brands), engineering and financial services.

In fact, Porsche Automobil Holding SE is one of the largest automotive dealers in Europe. Many might be surprised to know that a large number of Peugeot and Citroen cars which competes against Volkswagen, are actually sold by the Porsche Automobil Holding’s France-based PGA Motors. Yes, the French manufacturers rely on Germans to sell a lot of their cars.

Winterkorn is also keeping his position at Audi, as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of AUDI AG.