Continental AG

Who owns Continental AG?
Continental AG is a public company listed on XETRA under ticker CON. The Schaeffler family is the largest shareholder with approximately 46 percent held through its IHO holding company; the remaining shares are free float held by institutional and retail investors.

Is Continental AG publicly traded?
Yes. Continental trades on the XETRA platform and Frankfurt Stock Exchange under ticker CON and is a member of the DAX index.

When was Continental founded?
Continental was founded in Hanover, Germany, on October 8, 1871, as Continental-Caoutchouc und Gutta-Percha Compagnie, making it one of the world's oldest tire and rubber companies.

What happened to Continental's automotive business?
Continental spun off its Automotive and Contract Manufacturing electronics businesses as Aumovio, which listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on September 18, 2025. Continental now operates Tires and ContiTech sectors.

What brands does Continental own?
Continental's tire brands include the premium Continental marque, General Tire in the US, Barum, Semperit, Uniroyal rights in various markets, Viking, and Gislaved. Its ContiTech division serves industrial markets.

Does Continental own General Tire?
Yes. Continental acquired General Tire in 1987 and operates it as its mid-market brand for the US replacement tire market.

A consortium of bankers and industrialists founded Continental-Caoutchouc und Gutta-Percha Compagnie in Hanover on October 8, 1871, to manufacture rubber goods including solid tires, hoof buffers, and industrial products. The company moved early into pneumatic tires and produced Germany's first automobile tires with a tread pattern in 1904.

Through the 1920s Continental expanded via mergers into Continental Gummi-Werke AG and became Europe's first producer of cord tires. The postwar decades rebuilt the business around tires and technical rubber products, and from the 1970s onward the company assembled a multi-brand tire portfolio: Uniroyal's European operations in 1979, Austria's Semperit in 1985, and America's General Tire in 1987, which delivered Continental's first significant US manufacturing base.

The company transformed itself into an automotive systems giant in the 2000s. The 2001 acquisition of DaimlerChrysler's Temic electronics unit and the 2007 purchase of Siemens VDO for 11.4 billion euros made Continental a top-tier automotive electronics supplier alongside its tire business.

That scale attracted the Schaeffler Group, which mounted a surprise takeover bid in 2008. The contest ended with an investment agreement capping Schaeffler's stake, and the family holding emerged with roughly 46 percent, making it Continental's controlling shareholder through the IHO vehicle.

Continental began unwinding its conglomerate structure in the 2020s. It spun off powertrain unit Vitesco in 2021, and in 2025 completed the larger separation: on September 18, 2025, Aumovio, containing the Automotive and Contract Manufacturing group sectors with roughly 90,000 employees, listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Continental shareholders received Aumovio shares directly.

Post-spin-off, the company reported fiscal 2025 continuing operations of 19.7 billion euros in sales, with Tires at 13.8 billion euros and ContiTech at 6.0 billion euros. Net income attributable to shareholders was negative 165 million euros for the year, driven by one-off charges and impairments concentrated in ContiTech, even as the Tires sector performed at its usual strength. Management has described 2026 as the completion year of the realignment, with ContiTech set on a path toward future independence.

The 2008 Schaeffler takeover battle remains one of German corporate history's defining episodes. Schaeffler's covert stake-building through swap agreements triggered securities-law scrutiny and a settlement that capped its position, and the episode is still cited in discussions of market transparency rules.

Continental's historical record includes a dark chapter examined publicly in the 2020s: the company commissioned and published a study of its Nazi-era history, documenting forced and concentration camp labor used in wartime rubber production. The company accepted the findings as part of its corporate responsibility work.

ContiTech's weak 2025 performance, including restructuring charges and impairments that pushed group net income negative, has drawn investor criticism and strengthened the case for its separation. Routine tire recalls and antitrust investigations in the automotive supplier sector have also touched the company over the years.