VW committee to meet on leadership Thursday: source

[April 16, 2015]  STUTTGART/BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) - Volkswagen's <VOWG.DE> supervisory board steering committee will meet on Thursday to try to resolve a leadership crisis caused by the exposure of a rift between its chief executive and chairman, a source familiar with the matter said.

"The committee meeting will take place today," the person told Reuters.

VW's Chairman Ferdinand Piech said in a German magazine interview last week he had distanced himself from CEO Martin Winterkorn, dampening speculation that Winterkorn's term would be extended beyond 2016, or that he would succeed Piech as chairman.

Sources have told Reuters that Piech has aired growing criticism at supervisory board meetings over the past five months of the company's performance under his former protégé Winterkorn, particularly in the United States, where the VW brand has fallen far short of sales goals.
 

Two people close to the labor side of Volkswagen's supervisory board said the works council still supported Winterkorn despite the intervention of Piech, who has in the past ended executives' careers with a single remark.

Piech, 77, is the patriarch of Volkswagen's ruling clan. The family, which includes Piech's cousin Wolfgang Porsche, owns 50.7 percent of voting rights in the company.

Strategic decisions also need support from German unions, which occupy half of the 20 supervisory board seats.

The steering committee that will meet on Thursday comprises six members: works council chief Bernd Osterloh and two other labor representatives, Piech, Porsche and Lower Saxony Prime Minister Stephan Weil.

The works council, the state of Lower Saxony and Volkswagen all declined comment on any possible meeting.

Volkswagen shares were trading flat at 242.70 euros at 3.49 a.m. EDT on Thursday, outperforming a 0.8 percent-weaker German blue-chip DAX index .

(Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach and Andreas Cremer; Writing by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Maria Sheahan)

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