Volkswagen Group officially takes over Audi completely

Volkswagen Group took over the Audi brand from Daimler-Benz in the year 1964. Since then the two automakers are connected and Audi started its journey of becoming one of the most hailed German luxury automakers.

Till now, Volkswagen Group did not completely own Audi because it had 99.64 percent shares and the rest of it was owned by some other groups and people. However, this status is now set to change as the Volkswagen Group officially acquires the luxury automaker completely.

This was rumored a long time back until Volkswagen finally announced taking over the remaining shares at the annual general meet. In accordance with the German Stock corporation, this situation is called squeeze out.

In Audi’s 131st annual general meeting, Audi Board of Management voted for squeeze-out, which will result in the transfer of all the remaining shares to Volkswagen AG.

Volkswagen is not robbing the minority, but is, instead, compensating handsomely to the shareholders and reimbursing them 2514.08 SGD ($1,827.7) per Audi share according to the present exchange rate. Volkswagen is expected to pay for 150,000 shares and it is estimated that the automaker will disburse approximately 377 million SGD i.e., $274 million US dollars. This means that cash compensation is nearly 90% above the average price of the share.

Chairman of the Board of Management, Markus Duesmann stated that "The Volkswagen Group is centralizing all its power and placing group synergies and economies to the next level."

This move positioned Duesman as the group research and development lead and is also solely liable for building the new car software organization. This is an in-house software development team assists to build new software for cars. It will later enhance the portion of inhouse software development at the VW group from 10% to 60% by the end of 2025.

The Audi patrons will probably not be affected by these changes. Volkswagen will maintain the legacy of Audi cars and will extemporize to manufacture advanced technology cars. This takeover is going to serve the best for the future of Audi.

Also read: Audi e-tron comes with Black Edition and Vorsprung trim levels