A “general agreement” has been negotiated between the management of Volkswagen and its main shareholder and this agreement “should be the basis for further steps for a possible IPO of Porsche AG”.
The world’s second largest automotive group, Volkswagen, announced on Tuesday that it was in “advanced discussions” to list its luxury brand Porsche on the stock market, an operation that could allow it to finance the electric transition.
A “general agreement” has been negotiated between the management of Volkswagen and its main shareholder and this agreement “must be the basis for further stages of a possible IPO of Porsche AG”, manufacturer of the famous sports model 911, without that a “final decision has been made”.
Porsche is currently 100% owned by the Volkswagen Group.
This in turn is controlled by a financial holding company, called Porsche SE, through which the Porsche-Piëch family holds an absolute majority of voting rights (53.3%).
Porsche SE is already listed on the stock market and its title took more than 10% on Monday, while Volkswagen jumped more than 9% in a Dax weighed down by the conflict around Ukraine.
The IPO of the manufacturer Porsche, valued at tens of billions of euros by analysts, “could include the purchase of shares” of the latter by Porsche SE, specifies the holding company in a press release.
For this, the Porsche-Piëch families could even sell part of their stake in Volkswagen and release up to 15 billion euros to invest in Porsche, the German press had revealed at the end of 2021.
Such an operation, which would be historic for the automotive conglomerate, has been regularly mentioned by analysts and the media in recent months but has never been confirmed by the group.
One of the reasons: the massive capital needs to finance the electric transition and investments in the autonomous and connected car of the future.
The giant with twelve brands has been engaged for several months in a fierce race to electrify its offer and bring itself up to the level of the American Tesla and its Chinese competitors, which are more advanced in this field.
The group has planned to invest tens of billions of euros in its electrification and intends to sell 50% of electric vehicles by 2030.
The other reason: to give a boost to the stock market valuation of the parent company, which remains behind, especially against Tesla.
With this in mind, wishing to reduce the complexity of the conglomerate, the group has already listed its Traton truck branch on the stock market and sold a majority of the luxury manufacturer Bugatti.