Mercedes-Benz Courts Senior Managers With Buyouts as Buyback and Paris Showcase Roll On

Mercedes-Benz plans a December severance relaunch reaching senior executives, buys back 895,000 more shares, and preps Paris Motor Show debuts.

Mercedes-Benz is pulling two very different levers at once. On one side of the business, the Stuttgart automaker is steadily mopping up its own equity; on the other, it is preparing to thin out its white-collar ranks — this time reaching all the way into senior management.

The company intends to relaunch its voluntary severance program for employees in indirect functions starting in December, and for the first time the offer will extend to senior executives. Vehicle production itself stays outside the scope of the measure. Management did not attach a specific headcount target to the plan.

Cost pressure lands on the office, not the factory floor

The move underscores how urgently the board wants to reshape its fixed-cost base. Production chief Michael Schiebe had already warned, according to Reuters, that two German plants could face closure if costs did not come down — a stance the works council pushed back against. The broadened buyout package now aims squarely at areas well away from the assembly line. By folding in higher leadership tiers, Mercedes hopes to trim personnel costs in a socially acceptable way without touching core manufacturing directly.

Buyback keeps grinding along

While the severance net widens, the capital-markets side of the story is running on a steady rhythm. Under a program authorizing the repurchase of up to 58 million shares for as much as EUR 1 billion in total, Mercedes-Benz Group AG bought back another 895,000 of its own shares between September 21 and September 25. According to the fourth interim report, cumulative volume since the September 1 launch has now reached nearly three million shares.

Those regular open-market purchases are steadily shrinking the number of shares in circulation. The intent is to underpin the calculated value per share and to signal continuity in how the company deploys its capital — no small thing at a moment when the broader European auto sector is wrestling with muted sales expectations and structural headwinds.

Product offensive builds toward Paris

Running alongside the financial engineering is a push to sharpen the brand's presence in the premium tier. On Friday, subsidiary Mercedes-AMG kicked off a global campaign titled "TOO HARD TO RESIST" for the new Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe, with actor Brad Pitt fronting the sports model as its high-profile ambassador. The same day, Mercedes-Benz teamed up with sportswear maker adidas on a limited-edition leisure shoe, orderable from October 13.

Both efforts feed into the next big industry moment: the Paris Motor Show, running October 12 to 18. There, the manufacturer has promised to unveil new products, innovative technologies and developments, aiming to steer the attention of trade visitors and customers back toward its core offering. The lineup includes the new GLA, the GLE, a new S-Class and the fully electric VLE concept, alongside sporty entries such as the Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 and the Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe. The message the brand wants to send is that its innovation pipeline stays full even under savings pressure.

A battery tie-up with an eye on the future

Mercedes-Benz AG also locked in strategic ground in battery technology, agreeing with ProLogium Holding Inc. on joint testing and securing priority access to the company's fourth-generation solid-state battery cells. Those cells will be put through their paces on electrical and thermal performance as well as safety criteria.

Shareholders wait on the numbers

For all the activity, the equity has been a disappointing hold. The stock was quoted at EUR 39.98 pre-market, sitting 0.7 percent above its 52-week low, and it has shed 34 percent since the start of the year — a decline that captures the persistent valuation pressure weighing on the sector. Shares closed Friday at EUR 39.90.

Investors have two near-term operational markers to watch. On October 8, Mercedes-Benz will hold a pre-earnings call designed for dialogue with analysts and investors. Then, on October 28, the company will publish its interim report for the third quarter of 2026 and walk through the figures on an analyst conference.