Corporate Bits | Volkswagen reassures dealers on growth plans for us market

Volkswagen AG has told its dealers that the automaker is still committed to a mass-­market strategy in the United States, and has doubled production of an all-wheel-drive station wagon to challenge the Japanese automaker Subaru from the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2016.
Herbert Diess, global head of the Volkswagen brand, and Hinrich Woebcken, interim chief executive of the company’s U.S. sales unit, met with dealers on Saturday for 90 minutes during a convention in Las Vegas.
“We are working to redefine the Volkswagen brand in the United States by strengthening our management team, our partnerships with dealers, and our product portfolio,” Diess told reporters after the meeting. “We want to grow the volume consistently beyond past levels, and we will do this with our partners, the dealers.”
“If there’s going to be a redefinition, it’s going to be price-competitive German engineering,’’ said Michael DiFeo, the dealer principal at Linden Volkswagen in New Jersey, who attended Saturday’s meeting.

starwood ceo: m&a accelerating after marriott deal

The battle for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. may be over, but the company’s chief executive officer says it’s just the beginning for lodging-industry mergers.
“Clearly the Marriott-Starwood transaction has created a lot of chatter about further consolidation,” Starwood CEO Tom Mangas said during a conference call with analysts, in which he and Marriott International Inc.’s CEO, Arne Sorenson, discussed the outcome of a three-week bidding war for Starwood.
The deal, which solidified after Thursday’s surprise exit of rival bidder Anbang Insurance Group Co., will drive cost savings and revenue growth, Mangas said.
Meanwhile, the hotel industry is consolidating, following a drop in lodging stocks last year and signs of slowing revenue growth for the industry. Hyatt Hotels Corp. had been in talks to acquire Starwood last year before Marriott swooped in.
“Competitors will observe and see how it goes, and decide how critical it is for them to play,” Mangas said during the call on Friday. “To the extent that we execute well, I think they’ll feel increased pressure for consolidation in what’s an extremely fragmented market worldwide.”