Lush severance payments: VW pays 100 million to get rid of board members

Volkswagen is letting the separation of board members cost a lot of money.

Lush severance payments: VW pays 100 million to get rid of board members

Volkswagen is letting the separation of board members cost a lot of money. In the past ten years, a three-digit million sum has gone to top executives who left the group prematurely.

In the past ten years, Volkswagen has paid around 100 million euros for severance payments to board members who had to vacate their positions early. This emerges from entries in the annual reports that "Capital" evaluated. Between 2012 and 2021, the automotive group terminated the contracts of 14 board members before the end of their usual term and agreed individual payments with the managers for the remaining term. The former CEO Matthias Müller received the highest sum: he was awarded 17.8 million euros when he left office in mid-2018 after three years.

VW has a comparatively high wear and tear of top managers. The last castaway took place at the beginning of September: Herbert Diess had to vacate the chief post after four years. His fellow board member and Porsche boss Oliver Blume moved up, two other board members are leaving the board.

Diess' contract runs until 2025, and he should also be entitled to a double-digit million sum. This cannot be calculated precisely from the outside, since the remuneration of the Management Board is made up of a complex construct of fixed salary and various short-term and long-term bonus payments. To classify: Diess had received remuneration of a good 10 million euros in 2021.

Severance pay is one of the best-kept secrets in business. Even in the case of listed companies, the annual reports publish at most approximate values, which are also well hidden: in many cases they are not included in the remuneration reports, but are listed in an appendix to the balance sheet. A list of payments to eleven former board members, which VW first published in the 2021 annual report, provides more insight.

You can read more about this at capital.de