Over the coming weeks and in cooperation with the banks, the Schaeffler Group will present a viable concept for the joint future of Schaeffler and Continental that takes into account today’s changed circumstances. Furthermore, the company is currently in talks with potential investors.

The talks with the federal government and state representatives are about securing financial aid for an interim period of time. From Schaeffler’s point of view it is clear that this aid can be provided only if it presents a sustainable concept. This is to ensure that the interim aid will not burden the taxpayers. It is a matter of securing more than 220,000 jobs in both companies and tens of thousands of jobs at suppliers and allied businesses. And it is also a matter of ensuring that next-generation technologies remain in Germany in the long run and are further developed here.

The wealth of the Schaeffler family is firmly bound up in the enterprise. The family has always re-invested the profits instead of withdrawing them from the company. Only in this way has it been possible to develop a world market leader in Germany having a total workforce of 70,000. Since 2001, the Group has generated 12,000 new jobs, 4,000 of which are based in Germany.

The Schaeffler Group emphatically rejects the allegation that it “gambled for high stakes” when carrying out the takeover. Nobody could have foreseen the scope of the global financial crisis, which has had such a dramatic impact, particularly on the automotive industry. It was not the automotive industry that triggered this crisis. Schaeffler and Continental were sound and highly profitable companies before the crisis and will be just as sound and profitable when it has been overcome.

The merger was and still is about creating an internationally leading supplier of cutting-edge technologies in Germany who will continue to invest in Germany in the future. This is also in the interest of the German automotive industry and the German economy as a whole.

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