Volkswagen on Thursday said that the weak yen was giving Japanese car makers a huge competitive advantage.
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“The weakness of the Japanese yen versus the euro has now reached a level where it represents a massive competitive advantage for our Japanese competitors,” chief financial officer Hans Dieter Poetsch told investors at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, according to a Reuters report.
The news agency noted that, on Monday, the euro rose to a record high of around JPY162.42 after the Group of Seven (G7) chose not to specifically address the issue of the Japanese currency’s weakness.
Reuters added that VW declined to comment before the investors gathered in Hamburg on the mandatory takeover bid from its largest shareholder, Porsche, which values VW at almost EUR101 per ordinary share.
“We will issue a statement and the reasons for our recommendation as soon as we have received the bid document,” chief executive Martin Winterkorn was reported to have said in a speech.
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By GlobalDataVolkswagen also reaffirmed its forecast for pretax profit to rise to at least EUR5.1bn ($US6.93bn) in 2008 after announcing on Wednesday, that its first-quarter operating profit before special items surged nearly 60% to EUR1.09bn thanks to restructuring gains, rising car sales and last year’s weak comparison figure, Reuters added.
