Volkswagen Group Makes Record Earnings In 2017

It was a year for a lot of records at Volkswagen. 2017 saw them achieve a new delivery record of 10.7 million vehicles. They have recovered from a spate of scandals and are starting to pull strong once again, which is impressive considering the breadth and depth of their previous issues. 

There's a lot of fiscal lingo, but we'll break it down for you and list the numbers that matter. Total sales revenue for 2017 was EUR 230.7 billion (RM 1111.71 billion) across all the companies in the group, which is 6.2% higher than the year before. 

In terms of actual operating profit, after deducting a whole bunch of expenditure and taxation, the figure comes to EUR 11.6 billion (RM 55.88 billion). It's important to note that this figure does not include the profit acquired from Chinese joint venture operations as it is accounted for as equity. This is just over double what they earned in 2016. 

For shareholders, there's good news as well. There is a proposed near-doubling of dividends for both normal shares and preferred shares, going up to EUR 3.90 and EUR 3.96 (RM 18.80 and RM 19.09) respectively. It shows that Volkswagen Group, for all their troubles and the stormy seas they've had to weather, are still putting customers and shareholders first. 

But all of this good fiscal news comes despite the fact that the Automotive Division of the group is still paying out for the mistakes of the past. Net cash flow decreased by EUR 10.3 billion year-on-year to EUR –6.0 billion. Nevertheless, net liquidity in the Automotive Division continued at a robust level, amounting to EUR 22.4 billion at the end of 2017.