Porsche float could triple Ferrari
Brand finance boss puts €70b valuation on Super Premium Brand groupA flotation of the Volkswagen Group’s Porsche-led Super Premium Brand group could be worth anything up to €70b ($A113.6b), even in the current IPO-unfriendly environment.
Porsche’s Director of Finance and IT, Lutz Meschke, insisted on Friday that the group could easily triple the market valuation of Ferrari’s €19b capitalization.
Though no official plans exist for an IPO, the group of Porsche, Lamborghini, Bentley and Bugatti could even “conceivably” push the valuation up to and beyond €100b.
“We would likely be viewed as a luxury goods manufacturer and the multiples are completely different compared with a normal premium brand,” Meschke said during a question and answer session this week at Porsche's development centre.
“A valuation of €60-70b euros certainly doesn't sound like a stretch.”
The interesting thing about that is that the Volkswagen Group, Porsche’s parent company, sports a market capitalization of about €69b. That suggests its shareholders already own the Super Premium Brand group but receive Audi, Ducati, Volkswagen, Skoda and Seat for free.
And Meschke insisted any float of the Super Premium Brand group would benefit Volkswagen Group shares, too.
“When Ferrari went public, it was Fiat Chrysler itself that saw a sudden surge in value.
“You can assume that I am also explaining the advantages within the group,” Meschke said.
Porsche took the unusual step today of clarifying Meschke’s comments, insisting he was simply explaining a potential positive of a hypothetical float and that it was “not currently pursuing” a full or partial listing.
The Volkswagen Group, and not Porsche, would take any decision about an initial public offering of Super Premium Brand shares, it explained.
Porsche was an independent car company as recently as 2009, when it nearly went bankrupt as the global financial crisis wiped out its plot to take over the Volkswagen Group.
The Porsche and Piech families own the majority of Volkswagen Group voting shares, though they once controlled Porsche as a private company.
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