Back in March, we reported that VW wanted to squeeze out Audi‘s minority shareholders in an attempt to fully own the Ingolstadt-based carmaker.
Until now, the VW Group owned 99.64% of Audi, with minority shareholders clinging onto the remaining 0.36%. Apparently, “all” it took for the group to buy out these shareholders was paying a 48 percent premium for a total of $267 million, Autonews Europe reports .
“Volkswagen AG announced and specified that it has set the cash settlement to be paid to the minority shareholders in return for the transfer of their shares at 1,551.53 euros per Audi AG share,” said the automaker.
According to Refinitiv data, this compares with a share price of 1,050 euros a piece and amounts to a purchase price of 237 million euros ($267 million) for a total of 152,749 outstanding Audi shares. The transfer of shares is expected to take place at the company’s next annual general meeting, which was originally scheduled for May 14, 2020, but will now take place in July or August.
Share transfer aside, Audi will continue to operate as a stock corporation, compatible with the capital market.
“As Audi’s employee representatives, we fought for and achieved this goal,” said Peter Mosch, chairman of Audi’s General Works Council. “The brand will therefore continue to be independent within the Group.”
Audi remains one of the VW Group’s most important brands, and in some sectors, such as R&D, one of its pioneers.