Looming - Porsche To Be Absorbed as VW's 10th Brand
07-07-09, 04:37 PM
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Looming - Porsche To Be Absorbed as VW's 10th Brand
Looks like Mr. Pierch can use his ~13% holding of Porsche shares to block the Qatar deal, currently Porsche's only hope at remain autonomous. Were he to do so, Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking (who wanted to take 75% control of VW AG and wanted to apply lessons learned from Toyota) would be forced out and VW would absorb Porsche AG as it's tenth brand.
I know some of you could care less, but this just gets more dramatic every week
http://www.businessweek.com/autos/au...dex+page_autos
I know some of you could care less, but this just gets more dramatic every week
Originally Posted by Businesss Week
Porsche and Volkswagen Showdown is Looming
Posted by: David Kiley on July 07
Top management of German auto companies Porsche AG and Volkswagen will come to the table in the next two weeks to discuss an investment by the Qatar sovereign wealth fund and how that could possibly strengthen Porsche’s bid to takeover Volkswagen AG.
Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking has been pursuing a strategy of trying to acquire control of VW since 2005 when he first bought a stake in the larger company. That strategy blew up in the CEO’s face, though, last Fall when the global capital markets tanked and Porsche got caught holding risky derivative investments it was using to finance its acquisition of VW.
The dealings between Porsche and VW have taken on a soap-opera-like quality. The VW supervisory board chairman is Ferdinand Piech, the great grandson of Ferdinand Porsche. His family is also part of the controlling stakeholders in Porsche.
The Porsche and Piech clans have long been rivals. At one time, it was believed that Piech and Wiedeking were working in concert to have Porsche acquire VW. But in recent months, Piech has been openly critical of Porsche’s moves and its excessive debt.
Piech, as a significant Porsche shareholder, can, in fact, block the Qatar investment. Qatar is looking for voting shares in Porsche in exchange for investing billions. Up to now, the Porsche and Piech families have controlled all the voting shares.
If Wiedeking is blocked, and the Qatar investment doesn’t go through, there is the strong likelihood that he will be ousted as CEO and that Porsche will be absorbed by VW. It would be a spectacular fall of one of Germany’s leading industrial executives. Wiedeking has been CEO of Porsche since the early 1990s and led the sports car company to be the most profitable, as measured by operating margin, auto company in the world.
Porsche currently owns 51 percent of VW.
Wiedeking has so far failed to secure 1.75 billion euros in loans it wants from commercial banks or from KFW, a state-controlled bank in Germany.
Qatar is approaching a potential investment in Porsche as a passive financial investor and is apparently open to investing in either company.
Posted by: David Kiley on July 07
Top management of German auto companies Porsche AG and Volkswagen will come to the table in the next two weeks to discuss an investment by the Qatar sovereign wealth fund and how that could possibly strengthen Porsche’s bid to takeover Volkswagen AG.
Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking has been pursuing a strategy of trying to acquire control of VW since 2005 when he first bought a stake in the larger company. That strategy blew up in the CEO’s face, though, last Fall when the global capital markets tanked and Porsche got caught holding risky derivative investments it was using to finance its acquisition of VW.
The dealings between Porsche and VW have taken on a soap-opera-like quality. The VW supervisory board chairman is Ferdinand Piech, the great grandson of Ferdinand Porsche. His family is also part of the controlling stakeholders in Porsche.
The Porsche and Piech clans have long been rivals. At one time, it was believed that Piech and Wiedeking were working in concert to have Porsche acquire VW. But in recent months, Piech has been openly critical of Porsche’s moves and its excessive debt.
Piech, as a significant Porsche shareholder, can, in fact, block the Qatar investment. Qatar is looking for voting shares in Porsche in exchange for investing billions. Up to now, the Porsche and Piech families have controlled all the voting shares.
If Wiedeking is blocked, and the Qatar investment doesn’t go through, there is the strong likelihood that he will be ousted as CEO and that Porsche will be absorbed by VW. It would be a spectacular fall of one of Germany’s leading industrial executives. Wiedeking has been CEO of Porsche since the early 1990s and led the sports car company to be the most profitable, as measured by operating margin, auto company in the world.
Porsche currently owns 51 percent of VW.
Wiedeking has so far failed to secure 1.75 billion euros in loans it wants from commercial banks or from KFW, a state-controlled bank in Germany.
Qatar is approaching a potential investment in Porsche as a passive financial investor and is apparently open to investing in either company.
http://www.businessweek.com/autos/au...dex+page_autos
Last edited by FKL; 07-07-09 at 04:40 PM.
07-07-09, 07:01 PM
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dang what a crazy battle, first it seems like porsche is buying vw then vw is buying porsche... crazy. 
07-07-09, 08:48 PM
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Pole Position
A soap opera is an understatement. I've followed this for a while and the behind the scenes maneuvering have been astonishing. I hope someone writes the definitive version of this once all is said and done.
07-07-09, 09:07 PM
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Lexus Fanatic
If Porsche's Wiedeking gets full control of VW, won't he also get Bentley in the process? (Bentley, of course, being owned by VW). A classic low-volume automaker, maybe, but quite prestigious.
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