Porsche Holding Salzburg (PHS), Europe's largest automotive distribution company, acquired, on October 15th, the Society for the Import of Automobile Vehicles (SIVA), thus assuming responsibility for the light car brands Volkswagen, Volkswagen Veículos Commercials, Audi, ŠKODA, Bentley and Lamborghini for the Portuguese market.
In this operation, SOAUTO, SIVA's automotive retail company, with 11 points of sale in Lisbon and Porto, became part of PHS.
"After a long negotiation, which lasted almost two years and which led to great uncertainty, we are proud to sign this acquisition", said Hans Peter Schützinger, chairman of the PHS Board of Directors, at a press conference, safeguarding a very important fact for the 650 employees of SIVA and SOAUTO: “we have all the company's employees”.
Return to good results
Until 2022, PHS wants SIVA to sell more than 30,000 new cars a year again. A number that is, in practice, the volume that SIVA represented in the automobile market until 2017.
Subscribe to our newsletter
Pedro de Almeida, Managing Director of SIVA, and whose role is shared with Viktoria Kaufmann, admits that the goal of 30,000 units/year is to be achieved in the medium term, and that the brand's ambitions go further.
We now have all the conditions to put our organization back on the path of progress.
Viktoria Kaufmann, who as mentioned shares SIVA's leadership with Pedro de Almeida, reinforced this feeling: “The financial strength of PHS gives us the opportunity to start a new chapter for SIVA in Portugal […]. For us, the focus is on the strategy of economic, sustainable and long-term growth for the entire organization.”
Viktoria Kaufmann gained international experience in managing automotive distribution at PHS and most recently worked as Managing Director in Colombia.
How SIVA brands will return to good results was also detailed. “It will be organic growth, through the group's strategy, price and marketing […]. We intend to reposition market shares to the level that our brands deserve”, said the Portuguese executive.
Regarding the rent-a-car market, which in the national market represents 30% of sales volume, the watchword is controlled risk. “We want to maximize the residual value of our brands, which is one of their most important assets […] and make the best use of our dealer network”.
20 million investment in SIVA
Rainer Schroll, Executive Director responsible for retail at PHS, emphasized the importance of the retail sector and announced the investment, in the coming years, of more than 20 million euros in the development and modernization of retail in terms of installations and investment in digital .
We are going to build new facilities in Lisbon, which demonstrate the seriousness with which we take this new commitment in Portugal. And we won't forget the importance of digitization for the future of automotive retail.
The responsibility as Managing Director for retail at SOAUTO will continue to be assumed by José Duarte, together with Mario De Martino, whose commercial experience also started at PHS, having been, most recently, Financial Director in Chile.
Who is Porsche Holding Salzburg?
Porsche Holding Salzburg (PHS), Europe's largest automotive distribution company, is since 2011 a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG. A company whose activity began 70 years ago, with the import of Volkswagen cars in Austria.
With the acquisition of SIVA, PHS now represents more than 468 dealers worldwide. Its operations span Europe, North America and South America. Last year PHS' turnover was 20.4 billion euros, thanks to the transaction of a total of 960,000 cars worldwide .
We remind you that PHS acquired SIVA from SAG, from João Pereira Coutinho, at the end of April, for the value of one euro. At this point, the Austrian company took over SIVA's debt, which obtained a 100 million euro pardon from the bank. Currently, SIVA and SOAUTO employ 650 people, both having been integrated by PHS, which will benefit from the experience of the existing management team.
