Continental Realigns Its Powertrain Business Unit Into An Independent Company – Vitesco Technologies

Continental’s powertrain business has become the first part of the group to complete its realignment, with the management team fully in place since April 1, 2019. It now operates as an independent business that will trade under the name of “Vitesco Technologies”. The introduction of this new name is planned for the second half of 2019. The transformation of the division into a largely independent group of legal entities took place as planned at the start of 2019. Headed by Andreas Wolf, the new company’s management team is preparing for the planned partial IPO. The conditions necessary for informing the capital market of further details are likely to be in place by the end of the second half of 2019. The company will be ready to complete the partial IPO once further required technical and regulatory measures have been implemented, which means it can be expected from 2020 onward depending on the market situation.

The new name. “Vitesco” comes from vita, the Latin for “life”, building on the image of energy, speed and agility. The second part of the name – “Technologies” – highlights the company’s ambition to be a supplier of innovative, groundbreaking technologies, systems and services.

“We completed the transformation of Powertrain into an independent group of legal entities in record time. We could not have done this without the support of our people. The fact that over 99 percent of our employees moved to the new company demonstrates their confidence in the path that we have chosen to follow,” said Andreas Wolf. “The decision to become an independent business and the preparations for the partial IPO clearly show that we are both willing and able to change. These qualities will provide us with a competitive advantage.” The move to transform the Powertrain division into an independent company was prompted by the rapid changes that are expected to occur in the powertrain market over the next few years – the way the market evolves will largely be determined by government targets for emission limits.

The customers of Continental’s Powertrain business include all the major OEMs. The company has over 50 production and development facilities across all the regional markets and employs more than 42,000 people worldwide. The Powertrain business will remain under the overall stewardship of its head office in Regensburg.

The establishment of Continental’s powertrain activities as an independent group of legal entities forms part of a far-reaching organizational realignment undertaken by Continental in response to the profound changes in the automotive industry. In the future, the Continental Group will be divided into the three “group sectors” of Rubber Technologies, Automotive Technologies and Powertrain Technologies.