Bernhard to leave Volkswagen at end of January

Wolfgang Bernhard

Reuters / January 11, 2007 - 10:00 am UPDATED: 1/11/2007 10:56 A.M.FRANKFURT (Reuters) -- Wolfgang Bernhard, chairman of the VW brand group, will leave Volkswagen by mutual agreement at the end of January following a management reshuffle, the company said today.

"(Volkswagen Chief Executive) Martin Winterkorn, who will take over the management of the Volkswagen brand group in addition to his present duties, emphasized that Bernhard had furthered the process of restructuring of the company and hence increased the productivity of the Volkswagen brand," VW said in a statement.

Bernhard, an ally of former VW CEO Bernd Pischetsrieder, had been widely expected to resign after a boardroom coup that installed rival VW executive and Audi boss Winterkorn at the helm of the world's fourth largest carmaker.

Following the November ousting of Pischetsrieder, who resigned at the end of last year, few analysts believed Bernhard would remain at VW, due to recurrent speculation that Winterkorn sought to marginalize his role in management.

VW shares barely reacted to today's news.

"It's a loss, a sentiment negative for Volkswagen but I'm not surprised the share isn't reacting since it was so widely expected," said a London-based analyst.

The outgoing VW brand group chairman had focused his efforts on restructuring the loss-making German operations at VW, but his plans for thousands of job cuts at the six west German VW plants and the sale of parts of VW's uncompetitive German automotive components business sparked strong opposition from the company's powerful worker representatives.

Bernhard, considered one of the best executives in the industry, joined Volkswagen on Feb. 1, 2005, and took over as head of the VW brand group in May that year.

Separately, Volkswagen said today it had no plans to make an offer for MAN AG after the German truck maker's stock had risen earlier on such speculation.

"We do not want to buy MAN," a VW spokeswoman said.

Shares in the truck maker, which itself has launched a bid for Swedish rival Scania, rose earlier as dealers said there was talk in the market that Volkswagen was going to make an offer for the MAN after a meeting of VW's supervisory board today, in which Winterkorn was due to unveil his new strategy.