Porsche secures ten billion euros to buy VW shares

Porsche's takeover of VW is just about complete.

The Stuttgart-based company, Porsche Automobil Holding SE, has secured 10 billion euros in loans to buy the remaining shares in Volkswagen AG it needs to hold a controlling stake. The deal also allows Porsche to borrow an additional 2.5 billion euros if needed.

Porsche secured the line of credit from a consortium of 15 banks, which include Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse Group, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas and Barclays Capital.

Porsche has been buying up VW shares for almost 4 years now and by January of this year held 51 percent of the Wolfsburg-based automaker, the largest in Europe by sales volume.

Due to complicated rules for corporate governance in VW's charter, which require an 80 percent voting share to control the company, and the laws of the state of Lower Saxon, where VW is based, which state that a 75 percent share of the vote at a stockholder's meeting is required in order to exercise a controlling interest, a stakeholder would need 80 percent of VW to be in charge outright.

Porsche has secured the loan in order to raise its stake past the 75 percent mark. But the government of Lower Saxony still owns 20.1 percent of Volkswagen AG.