The shareholders at the 52nd Annual General Meeting of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft voted by a majority of 99.96% to pay a dividend of €3.00 (previous year: €2.20) per ordinary share and €3.06 (€2.26) per preferred share as recommended by the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board. About €1.4 billion will come from the net profit of Volkswagen AG.
In 2011, the Volkswagen Group reported record vehicle sales, revenue and earnings. The VW Group sold more than 8 million vehicles for the first time with global share of the passenger car market rising from 11.3% to 12.3%.
The Group’s global market share has risen by 2.7 percentage points since 2007 and its return on sales before tax has climbed from 6% in 2007 to 11.9% last year. As a result, sales revenue increased by 25.6% in the past fiscal year to €159.3 billion (previous year: €126.9 billion).
VW Group consolidated operating profit rose to a record €11.3 billion, an improvement of €4.1 billion compared with 2010. This does not include the Group’s €2.6 billion (€1.9 billion in 2010) share of the operating profit of its communist-government-required Chinese joint ventures. Operating margin improved from 5.6% to 7.1%.
The Annual General Meeting elected Ursula M. Piëch as a new member of the Supervisory Board. She succeeds Dr. Michael Frenzel whose term of office expired at the end of the Annual General Meeting. At the Supervisory Board meeting held following the General Meeting, the members of the Supervisory Board elected Prof. Dr. Ferdinand K. Piëch for a further term as the Supervisory Board Chairman.
About Ken Zino
Ken Zino, editor and publisher of AutoInformed, is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, as well as social media. He has automobile testing, marketing, public relations and communications experience. He is past president of The International Motor Press Assn, the Detroit Press Club, founding member and first President of the Automotive Press Assn. He is a member of APA, IMPA and the Midwest Automotive Press Assn.
He also brings an historical perspective while citing their contemporary relevance of the work of legendary auto writers such as Ken Purdy, Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or writers such as Red Smith, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson – all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe.
Above all, decades after he first drove a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped during a downshift and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly and swiftly crossed. It’s the beginning of a perfect lap.
AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves transportation machines of all kinds while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks.
Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City on Motor and MotorTech Magazines and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive market in the world with China at its center.
