Porsche Automobil Holding SE, Stuttgart, acquired a further 4.89 per cent of the Volkswagen ordinary shares on Tuesday, 16 September. As a result, the total stake in the Wolfsburg-based car manufacturer now amounts to 35.14 per cent of the voting rights. This step ensures that Porsche has a lasting majority at the VW annual general meeting.
By going above 35 per cent of the voting rights, Porsche will acquire de facto control of the Wolfsburg-based group. As a result, employee representatives of Volkswagen will now take seats in the Works Council of Porsche SE and the Supervisory Board of Porsche SE. The Works Council of Porsche SE will be informed about the increase of the stake and will be asked to reconstitute itself. Dr. Wiedeking was confident that the cooperation between the employee representatives of Porsche and Volkswagen in both bodies – Works Council and Supervisory Board – would help them develop a better understanding of each other’s positions and would lead to a constructive and forward-looking co-existence.
As a result of the new shareholder structure, Porsche is required by law to submit a formal mandatory offer for the VW subsidiary Audi AG, Ingolstadt. This formality is a statutory requirement and has no effect whatsoever on the intentions of Porsche. In light of this, Porsche will only offer the minimum price prescribed by law for the shares, which is expected to be about 487 Euro per Audi share. Volkswagen has stated that it will not be accepting the offer for its 99.14 per cent of the Audi shares. Porsche does not intend to acquire Audi shares outside the mandatory offer.
Dr. Wendelin Wiedeking, Chief Executive Officer of Porsche, said: “Our goal continues to be to increase our stake in Volkswagen to more than 50 per cent.†The further increase of the stake in Volkswagen is expected to take place in the coming months.
