Volkswagen Shares Up Amid Activist Pressure

olkswagen shares rose as investors applauded activist investor TCI’s demands for Volkswagen to restructure. In an open letter published Friday, TCI criticized Volkswagen’s corporate governance, weak profits and bloated workforce. The critique joins similar calls from other major investment funds with a stake in the car maker. In March, 278 investors joined a class-action suit in Germany, seeking around $3.57 billion in damages as a result of the erosion of the car maker’s share price after the emissions scandal. Despite their criticism, most of Volkswagen’s outside investors have no voice inside the boardroom. The company issues two classes of stock—nonvoting preference shares and ordinary stock—and nearly all of the voting stock is held by three investors.