The automotive supplier Vitesco wants to start earning money with components for electric cars from 2024. The area is growing rapidly and requires high investments, said Vitesco boss Andreas Wolf. “The fact that we have not earned anything with it up to now is due to these investments.”
In the medium term, the company is aiming for a return of seven to nine percent. The company still generates 90 percent of its revenues with drive parts for combustion cars. The aim is to generate three quarters of sales with components for electric cars by 2030. In the first half of the year, Vitesco generated sales of around 4.4 billion euros, 29 percent more than a year earlier. The adjusted operating profit was 84.2 million euros, which corresponds to a margin of 1.9 percent.
The former Continental drive division goes public on September 16 as part of a spin-off. The Continental shareholders receive one Vitesco share for every five Conti shares booked in their custody account. The Austrian investor Siegfried Wolf is to become chairman of the company’s supervisory board. “We have a broad portfolio, we are not lacking anything,” said Vitesco boss Wolf. You can grow without acquisitions. “But that doesn’t mean that you don’t look to see whether you can set technological accents here or there.” In the long term, Wolf did not rule out an expansion of the business into other sectors. However, there are no concrete plans. Chief Financial Officer Werner Volz spoke of a high three-digit million amount or a low billion amount, which is basically available for acquisitions.
While the area of parts for electric cars is growing, Vitesco is simultaneously faced with the task of slowly winding up the traditional areas. Wolf said his company had already agreed with the customer how long the relevant components – such as pumps – would be delivered. Considerations to sell business areas for combustion technology, he gave a refusal. “Should there be any thought that one or the other can sensibly be packed up, we will always check that,” he said.
“But I can hardly imagine that this is possible.” The market is developing downwards very quickly, making it difficult to develop a functioning business model. The Vitesco boss expects the semiconductor crisis to relax from the end of the year, provided that there are no new difficulties such as natural disasters or corona restrictions. The negotiations on the demand for the coming year were ongoing, and it would then become clear how the shortage could be overcome. “If everything works out like this, the situation will ease significantly at some point in the course of 2022.”