Porsche has said in a statement that reports of it planning to increase its 31 percent stake in Volkswagen to 75 percent were pure speculation. The report was in Focus magazine, but cited no Porsche representative in its assertion.
"The speculation that it would increase it to 75 percent ignores the reality in the VW shareholder structure," Porsche said. "The background of these latest media reports are apparently bourse speculations which can be traced to ideas being mooted about by analysts and investors."
Porsche is currently the single biggest shareholder in Europe’s biggest carmaker, followed by the German state of Lower Saxony with its 20 percent shareholding. Even if Porsche were to attempt a stab at acquiring the remaining shares on the open market it would be extremely difficult; Germany’s powerful unions would probably not take too kindly to such a move, even though Porsche most likely saved VW from a possible foreign takeover by its shareholding move. On the other hand Ferdinand Piëch, whose family owns about 13% of Porsche, wants to run a bigger company than what his grandfather and uncle Ferdinand and Ferry Porsche respectively did.
Porsche Not Seeking 75% of VW Group
Porsche AG / Porsche logo
"Reports are speculative"
By Thami Masemola
March 11, 2008 12:12 AM
Filed Under: German, Industry, Porsche, Volkswagen
Comments
ck314
March 11, 2008 12:18 AM
Looks like the fires (1st warning) set in their assembly plant worked. Damn illuminist globalist state mafia.
dbehmoaras
March 11, 2008 3:36 PM
i don't even see why porsche would even want to take over vw--they get financed by them on their projects, and so far that has been working great what with the expansion to the cayenne and cayman platform, not to mention the upcoming 928/panamera (yes porsche, we know what you guys are up to over there in stuttgart) supported by vw corp.
sub39h
March 11, 2008 8:16 PM
Last I read, there were 2 major reasons that Porsche wanted to acquire VW, and those reasons still stand: in light of new laws coming in that govern the average CO2 of a manufacturer's model line up, a take over of VW would allow Porsche to push smaller cars to bring down their average without sullying their blood line (provided that car groups are allowed to "share" their averages amongst their brands). The other reason stands with the very fact that Porsche shares platforms and parts with VW: they're looking to protect their production lines. Considering that no Porsche representative was quoted on this, I think we have yet to hear the last word.
ck314
March 11, 2008 5:15 PM
Until the repeal of the so called "VW Law" very recently, which allowed minority blocking and veto for as long as you owned more than 20% (Lower Saxony federal govt. have 20.7%), german bureaucrats controlled de facto the VW group and were reticent to increased presence from Porsche (who owns more than 30%), which would have given them total control over the group.
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