A BMW board member has upped her share in German carbon fiber manufacturer SGL Group, a move that will allow her to veto company strategies that could benefit Volkswagen.
BMW’s arch rival VW acquired an 8.18 percent share in SGL earlier this year, a move that surprised industry analysts since BMW and SGL were already hard at work expanding their partnership that includes a new plant in the Northwestern United States.
BMW board member Susanne Klatten’s investment vehicle, Skion, now owns 27.3 percent of SGL Group and it has the opportunity to increase that share to 29 percent over the next year. Before the strategic move, Skion held about 22 percent of SGL Group.
VW will no longer be able to direct SGL Group to make decisions that aren’t mutually beneficial to both it and BMW.
Klatten is a member of the Quandt family, which effectively controls BMW by owning 46 percent of the automaker. Klatten is one of BMW’s largest investors with 12.6 percent of the brand.
So far, no automaker has used weight-saving carbon fiber in a volume model, although BMW plans to take advantage of SGL Group to produce structural parts for its upcoming i3 city vehicle, the first of its Megacity urban EV range.
References
1.’BMW’s Klatten holds…’ view
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