Advertisement

ma

VW mulling reverse takeover of Porsche

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
VW mulling reverse takeover of Porsche
Photo: DPA

Volkswagen is mulling a takeover of the automotive business of luxury sports car maker Porsche, which would add a new twist in the German industrial saga, press reports said on Thursday.

Advertisement

Directors of VW, the biggest European car maker, are considering making a bid for Porsche AG which would relieve the highly-indebted parent company Porsche SE, the Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) and Financial Times said.

Porsche made an audacious takeover bid for VW, which has sales 15 times larger than its smaller German peer, three and a half years ago. "The tail would finally stop wagging the dog," said a person familiar with VW thinking, the FT reported.

Porsche SE currently has €9 billion ($11.7 billion) in debt. Porsche boss Wendelin Wiedeking is looking for ways to finance the original plan to buy VW and a capital increase is not ruled out, the FTD said. The Porsche parent group owns a little more than 50 percent of Wolfsburg-based VW and wants to raise its stake to 75 percent.

A VW spokesman declined to comment on the report and Porsche was not immediately available.

Porsche's difficulty in financing the purchase of the much bigger VW has raised market speculation in recent weeks.

The magazine Manager said Stuttgart-based Porsche was in talks with possible investors in the Middle East, while VW shareholders were to meet on Thursday in a general assembly.

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also