Volkswagen plans Porsche IPO in weeks
Steve Goldstein - 1h ago
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Volkswagen on Tuesday said it will go ahead with an initial public offering of its Porsche sports-car division, pressing ahead despite a difficult market backdrop.
Volkswagen plans Porsche IPO in weeks
Volkswagen plans Porsche IPO in weeks
© Sean Gallup/Getty Images
The German automaker, which had said it was considering the move since February, said it’s planning to list Porsche at the end of September or the beginning of October on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
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Valuations for Porsche range from €60 billion ($58 billion) to €80 billion, potentially making the Porsche IPO the largest ever for the German market.
Investors will be able to buy preferred shares in Porsche, that do not carry voting rights.
Porsche Automobil Holding — the family’s holding company which holds a majority of Volkswagen — will acquire 25% plus one share of Porsche at the placement price of the ordinary shares, plus a premium of 7.5% over the preference price.
“Clearly, it is not ideal timing for an IPO and it is a questionable structure in our view, especially from a corporate governance perspective. However, due to the quality of the Porsche asset, the apparent interest of investors like Qatar, Bernard Arnault, Dietrich Mateschitz and presumably a lot of interest from retail investors, we assume the IPO will happen,” said analysts at Stifel.
Qatar has already agreed to buy a 5% stake, VW said.
VW said it will return up to 49% of the gross proceeds of the IPO in a special dividend to be paid early next year.
Volkswagen shares rose 2.5% in early action, though the stock is down 17% on the year.
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