VW's 49.9 per cent stake in Porsche
The Integrated Automotive Group bundles Porsche and Volkswagen together, but Volksy's holding the whip handVolkswagen announced yesterday that it is acquiring a 49.9 per cent share in Porsche AG. The mass-market manufacturer is already the parent company to Audi, Seat, Skoda and exotic marques Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti.
Moves by Porsche to take control of Volkswagen foundered when the sports car manufacturer landed itself in financial strife during the Global Financial Crisis. Volkswagen, the original takeover target, came to the 'aid' of Porsche during the latter company's time of need.
Volkswagen's announcement paves the way for the two companies to join forces under the umbrella of the 'Integrated Automotive Group', not 'Auto Union' as suggested recently. The company's participation in Porsche will be formalised by the end of this year, with the merger to take place officially during 2011.
In the announcement, Volkswagen declared that the "phased integration of the two companies" would preserve the independence of Porsche. On that point, rumours that Volkswagen would can the Panamera (pictured) and the Cayenne have been roundly dismissed as "complete nonsense" by Porsche's local Public Relations Manager, Paul Ellis.
"That's rumour; we're not even going to comment on that; it's completely unfounded," he told the Carsales Network. "That rumour's been going around for nearly a month..."
"How could you justify to Volkswagen shareholders -- they're going to pay €4 billion to acquire the company -- and as soon as they acquire the company, they're going to cut off the most profitable car that the company has, the Cayenne, and they're going to draw an early end to a model line that they've just spent over a billion Euro developing.
"How would you justify that to your stakeholders?"
The Cayenne shares its platform with the Volkswagen Touareg and the Audi Q7, so there's a little matter concerning economies of scale for future production of the VW and Audi SUVs to consider too.
Volkswagen will, according to the press release, pay roughly €3.9 billion for its 49.9 per cent share of Porsche.
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