Volkswagen and top investor steer towards Porsche IPO

By Jan Schwartz, Christoph Steitz and Victoria Waldersee

Summary

  • Volkswagen, Porsche SE negotiate framework agreement
  • VW could issue equal number of common, preference shares-sources
  • May list 25% of Porsche AG, no agreement yet – sources
  • Porsche SE shares up 15.2%, Volkswagen up 10.2%

HAMBURG/BERLIN, Feb 22 (Reuters) – Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) and its top shareholder have drawn up a preliminary agreement to list Porsche, paving the way for a deal that investors hope will unlock value from the luxury car brand and could be one of the world’s largest stock market debuts.

Analysts estimate Porsche AG could be valued at up to 90 billion euros ($102 billion) in an initial public offering (IPO), compared with Volkswagen’s current market value of around 116 billion euros.

At the time, the Porsche and Piech families became Volkswagen’s most influential investors via their holding company Porsche SE (PSHG_p.DE), which holds 31.4% in Volkswagen and 53% of the carmaker’s voting rights.

Ordinary shares confer voting rights and Porsche SE said it could buy such shares in any Porsche AG listing.

The sources said Volkswagen may seek to list 25% of Porsche AG if the IPO goes ahead.

Such a move would loosen the families’ grip on the German group in favour of direct ownership of the sports car brand founded by their ancestor Ferdinand Porsche in 1931.

Volkswagen and Porsche SE declined to comment on details of a potential listing, but the carmaker said a final decision had not been taken and any deal must be approved by management and supervisory boards.

One of the sources said Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess presented a basic outline of the IPO plans to representatives of the supervisory board earlier this week following discussions on the matter over last weekend.

A supervisory board meeting originally scheduled for Tuesday to discuss the plans was cancelled as too many questions remain unresolved, the person said.

($1 = 0.8820 euros)

Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Miranda Murray, Jan Schwartz, Christoph Steitz, Ilona Wissenbach Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter