When the news of the planned takeover of Vitesco AG was out, Klaus Rosenfeld’s phone rang. It was a colleague on the board of a French company and greeted the Schaeffler CEO with the congratulations: “Welcome to the club of ten.” Rosenfeld tells this to underline the dimension of what will primarily shape and concern Schaeffler AG, which he leads as CEO, in the current year: the takeover of the drive specialist Vitesco and thus the merger into one of the ten largest supplier groups in the world. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024.
All efforts seem to be focused on getting the takeover as precise as it has been preparing for months. 1,200 employees from both companies work in around two dozen teams around the world to ensure that the new structure runs as smoothly as possible from day one. At the end of April, the general meetings of both companies will presumably approve the deal, at the end of which there will be a group with 120,000 employees, a hundred factories and 25 billion euros in sales. It will be focused on electromobility, which Rosenfeld says: “It’s coming, there’s no doubt about it.”
Combustion engines will still be built for ten to 20 years, says the CEO
It’s just coming slower than many expected until recently. Cars with combustion engines will still be built and driven for ten, if not twenty, years, says Rosenfeld. And hybrids, which are currently experiencing an unexpected boom in the USA and China. That is why Schaeffler AG, which is primarily focused on the automotive industry, but also on the industrial and spare parts business, focuses primarily, but not exclusively, on electric drive technology. Last year, Schaeffler received orders worth more than five billion euros in the field of e-mobility, but this does not yet cover the majority of production.
Klaus Rosenfeld is CEO of Schaeffler AG.
(Photo: Peter Kneffel/dpa)
In 2023, Schaeffler generated 5.8 percent more sales, adjusted for currency effects, with rolling bearings, precision parts and systems for engines, transmissions and chassis as well as spare parts, a total of 16.3 billion euros. The net profit attributable to shareholders was roughly halved to 310 million euros, and the free cash flow was 421 million euros. Disappointing figures for the stock market traders, which sent the price of Schaeffler’s shares, which were already only weakly traded, plummeting – in the early morning there was a loss of four percent. Also because investors seem less convinced of the Vitesco deal than Rosenfeld and family businessman Georg Schaeffler.
“2024 will be a year of transition,” said Klaus Rosenfeld. For him, there is no question about the fundamental sense of the Vitesco takeover, namely the complementary combination of the competencies of both companies to form a mobility group of the future. At the end of the year there should be “significant sales growth”. For three quarters, only Schaeffler is included in the balance sheet, and in the fourth quarter, Vitesco, which then exists more as an independent company, is included in the balance sheet for the first time.
It is still unclear whether the merger will cost jobs. Rosenfeld said that “some job cuts, especially in administrative areas, cannot be ruled out.” Namely, where there are overlaps and duplications. If jobs were to be cut, it would be in a socially acceptable manner and agreed with employee representatives.