VW Braces for Investor Pressure on Diesel Clean-Up Concerns
- ISS recommends voting against management for fourth year
- Investor protest could add to headaches facing CEO Diess
Final quality checks at the VW factory in Wolfsburg
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergWhen Volkswagen AG’s Porsche brand agreed last week to pay $600 million to end a probe into rigged diesel engines, it highlighted the German auto giant’s struggles to move past the 2015 emissions-cheating scandal and provided fresh fodder for disgruntled shareholders.
Volkswagen’s clean-up efforts -- still lacking a thorough explanation into the roots of the crisis that has so far cost the company 30 billion euros ($33.7 billion) -- will be the focus of investor ire when the company holds its annual meeting in Berlin on Tuesday. Even though the automaker is insulated by its large owners, corporate-governance advisers Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis urged investors to vote against VW’s leadership at the gathering.