BERLIN (Reuters) – Shares in German auto parts manufacturer Vitesco Technologies started trading at 59.80 euros ($70.48) per share on Thursday at its market debut in Frankfurt, marking the company’s long-awaited spinoff from former parent Continental.
Shares in Continental were down 11.77% at 09.20 CET.
Vitesco, which produces powertrains for internal combustion engine (ICE), hybrid and electric cars, issued 40 million shares on Thursday morning, with Continental’s shareholders receiving one Vitesco share for every five Continental shares they owned.
Continental, among the world’s largest auto suppliers, delayed the spinoff of Vitesco by two years due to unfavourable market conditions worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, the company said at the time.
“We were confronted by developments that no-one had foreseen,” Vitesco CEO Andreas Wolf said at the Frankfurt stock exchange, adding “the corona crisis fully confirmed our strategy… e-mobility is booming.”
While the powertrain components maker currently earns the vast majority of its revenue from parts for ICE cars, Wolf told Reuters this month he hopes to break even on sales for electric vehicle components by 2024 and reap three quarters of revenues from electric vehicle parts by 2030.
($1 = 0.8485 euros)
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Riham Alkousaa and Arno Schuetze; Editing by Christoph Steitz)
