BERLIN, Sept 1 (Reuters) – Volkswagen stakeholders are discussing competing turnaround proposals for the beleaguered auto group ahead of a crucial supervisory board meeting on Friday but a breakthrough is seen as unlikely, sources familiar with the talks said.
There was some progress ahead of workers’ assemblies at Volkswagen plants last week but the readiness for compromise had faltered, one person familiar with the matter said.
Another source said efforts to reach a compromise before Friday’s meeting were not over but chances were slim.
Spokespeople for the company and the supervisory board declined to comment on the talks.
Handelsblatt was first to report on efforts to break the impasse. The business daily said representatives for management, top shareholders, the labour side and Lower Saxony met on Monday and Tuesday.
Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume will make a second attempt to push through radical cuts at Europe’s top carmaker on Friday.
Under pressure from the owner families to cut jobs and production, Blume must break an impasse with the group’s labour and state government stakeholders, or find a way to bypass their influence, in a potentially explosive power struggle at the company.
(Reporting by Christina Amann and Rachel More, editing by Kirsti Knolle)