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Volkswagen will buy out minority shareholders of its high-end brand Audi and take a 100% stake in Audi, with the aim of boosting Audi's position in the group, according to the latest Reuters report.

At present, Volkswagen already owns 99.64% of Audi. Volkswagen said: "in the context of restructuring capacity and responsibility, Volkswagen plans to conduct an extrusion operation under German stock company law to acquire a 0.36 per cent stake in Audi."

In addition, Audi will pass a resolution on "crowding-out acquisitions" at its annual general meeting, which is in line with German stock company law. Audi's annual shareholders' meeting has been postponed to July or August.

The move will help improve Audi's position in the group. "We are focusing on improving Audi's competitiveness," said Herbert Diess, chief executive of Volkswagen. In the future, the Audi brand with Markus Duesmann as the new CEO will lead the research and development of Volkswagen Group.

As early as November, Audi officially announced that Markus Duesmann, the former global director in charge of procurement at BMW, would replace Bram Schot as chairman and chief executive of Audi, effective April 1, 2020.

According to the data, Volkswagen Group's global sales reached 10.9746 million vehicles in 2019, up 1.3% from the same period last year, of which the Audi brand sold 1.8456 million vehicles, up 1.8% from the same period last year.

In 2019, Audi's revenue in the first three quarters was 41.3 billion euros, down 6.8% from a year earlier, while operating profit was 3.239 billion euros, up 12.8% from a year earlier.

Earlier, Audi had announced that it would cut 9500 jobs, or about 10 per cent of its workforce, by 2025. The job cuts will save Audi a cumulative cost of 6 billion euros and help propel the company to an electrified era. Audi also plans to launch more than 30 electrified models by 2025.

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