VW's Preferred Shares Stuck in Limbo as Boardroom Deadlock Deepens the Downturn
Published on 08/11/2026 at 13:12 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The numbers coming out of Wolfsburg paint a sobering picture: net profit down by roughly a third in the first half of 2026, a holding company writing off billions, and a restructuring plan that cannot get past the very people meant to approve it. For Volkswagen's preferred shares, the result is a stock that keeps bumping its head against technical resistance — and sliding.
A 50,000-Job Question Mark
Volkswagen has already shed 50,000 positions. Management now wants to cut another 50,000 and shutter four German plants, but the supervisory board has so far refused to green-light the plan. That leaves the executive team in the awkward position of trying to fight a profit collapse with even deeper cuts while its own oversight committee pumps the brakes — a standoff that leaves investors guessing about both the pace and the scale of the overhaul.
The squeeze is not confined to the factory floor. According to Handelsblatt, VW intends to eliminate more than 5,000 management roles by the end of the decade, which would remove nearly one in four of its roughly 21,500 managers worldwide. CEO Oliver Blume has signaled a flatter hierarchy, including demotions. The company is hardly alone in this: Deutsche Bahn, BMW and Bayer are all trimming their leadership layers as AI systems take over tasks that once required a manager's touch.
The Family Holding Feels the Pain
The strain is visible at the top of VW's ownership structure. Porsche SE, which controls 31.9 percent of Volkswagen and 12.5 percent of Porsche AG, took a €3 billion writedown on its VW stake in the first half — plus another €0.2 billion on Porsche AG. That pushed the holding company from a €0.3 billion group profit a year earlier to a €2.2 billion loss. Adjusted for special items, Porsche SE's result fell 14.5 percent to €949 million.
CEO Hans Dieter Pötsch called it a "historic turning point" for Volkswagen, language that underscores the scale of the transition. Deutsche Bank responded to the weak half-year figures by trimming its price target on Porsche SE shares, adding another layer of pressure to the entire VW-linked web of holdings.
Porsche AG itself presents a more mixed picture. Operating profit climbed 34 percent to €1.3 billion even as revenue slipped 5.1 percent to €17.2 billion and deliveries tumbled 16.5 percent to 122,306 vehicles. The electric-vehicle share of sales dropped from 23.5 percent to 19.4 percent. The profit gain on falling volume points to sharper cost control — a discipline VW proper has yet to demonstrate.
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China: From Growth Engine to Liability
The broader industry context is hardly forgiving. An analysis of the 15 largest non-Chinese automakers shows average earnings before interest and tax per vehicle down 15.8 percent to €1,187 in the first half, with sector-wide Ebit off 17.5 percent at €35.6 billion. US tariffs and Chinese price competition are squeezing everyone, and no relief is expected before 2027.
Nowhere is the pain more acute than in China, once VW's most important market. The passenger-car market there shrank 20 percent in the first half, but VW's combustion-engine sales fell 26.7 percent — the segment where the company still holds a 22.6 percent market share. In electric vehicles, VW manages only about 5 percent share in a market where new-energy vehicles account for 54 percent of sales. BEV deliveries dropped 64 percent in the first quarter, while overall China deliveries fell 36.6 percent in the second.
VW is fighting back with local partnerships, including one with Xpeng for the ID. UNYX 08 model, and roughly 20 locally developed vehicles planned for 2026. Robert Cisek, who heads the passenger-car brand in China, has talked up shorter development cycles and lower costs. The Audi E5 Sportback was named China's "Car of the Year 2026." Whether such wins can offset the structural weakness in combustion engines remains an open question.
A Stock That Can't Find Its Footing
The market's verdict is visible in the share price. The preferred stock traded at €74.74 on Tuesday, down 0.72 percent, after slipping to €75.28 the previous day. The weekly loss stands at 2.81 percent, and the stock is down 28.24 percent since the start of the year. It remains below its 50-day moving average, with chart watchers pointing to a consolidation phase at resistance after a brief Friday bounce. The gap to the December 52-week high of €109.10 is now 31.29 percent.
The combination of operational weakness, a blocked restructuring and writedowns at the anchor shareholder leaves little room for a near-term recovery. Until management and the supervisory board find common ground on a turnaround plan, the uncertainty — and the pressure on the shares — looks set to persist.
