By Rachel More and Ilona Wissenbach
BERLIN, March 11 (Reuters) – Porsche’s new CEO will review the German carmaker’s product portfolio, targeting growth in high-margin segments in a bid to recoup the losses from a turbulent 2025 rocked by profit warnings, tariff costs and missteps on electric.
“We are using the current challenges as an opportunity to act even more decisively,” Michael Leiters, who took over at the helm from long-standing CEO Oliver Blume on January 1, said on Wednesday.
“We will comprehensively reposition Porsche, make the company leaner, faster and the products even more desirable,” Leiters said, pointing to a possible expansion of margin-boosting products like the carmaker’s iconic sports cars.
Porsche, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, forecast a group operating return on sales in the range of 5.5% to 7.5% in 2026, after collapsing to 1.1% in 2025 from 14.1% a year before.
Both the 2025 margin and the guided range for 2026 were below analysts’ expectations for 1.3% and 7.8%, respectively, according to a Visible Alpha poll.
The company cut its proposed dividend for the past year to 1.00 euro ($1.16) per ordinary share and 1.01 euros per preferred share, after earnings were hit by 3.9 billion in extraordinary charges.
These included around 2.4 billion euros in charges from a strategic pivot away from electric as well as around 700 million euros in tariff costs.
The strategic reversal was announced by Blume prior to his departure. He remains CEO of the Volkswagen Group.
($1 = 0.8593 euros)
(Reporting by Rachel MoreEditing by Ludwig Burger and Shri Navaratnam)
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