The increase of Porsche’s stake from 27.3 percent to 30.9 percent at Volkswagen gives the German sports car manufacturer the right to a takeover bid as required by the German law.
Luckily for Porsche, Volkswagen shares dropped by 4 percent to 113.21 euros ($150.91) in Frankfurt on Monday afternoon while the German sports car maker’s share rose by 0.7 percent to 1,123 euros ($1,497). And as expected of Porsche is has cleverly made the minimum offering legally allowed of 109.20 euros (145.60) for each common share and 63 euros ($84) for each preferred share.
Porsche has already expected it that few investors would agree on their offered price. After the takeover bid is complete it is probable that Porsche will continue to increase its stakes in Volkswagen surpassing its present owned shares of 30.9 percent. However, if it plans to make another bid for VW it will have to exceed 50 percent stakes.
What Porsche has done can be considered a creative way of going around the German corporate law but it did not do it simply because it wants to gain control of Volkswagen. Believe it or not the German sports car maker just wants to protect Europe’s largest automaker from any untoward takeover by hostile foreign investors. And with the 30.9 percent owned stake of Porsche combined with the 20.26 percent owned shares of Lower Saxony totaling to 51.4 percent of shares at Volkswagen makes these two shareholders more effective in protecting the company from any investors who may want to take control of the Wolfsburg-based automaker.
Aside from protecting Volkswagen, Lower Saxony has also assured that the jobs of tens of thousands of its residents who worked for VW are safe. Porsche on the other hand, secures an essential source of technology in which it has the power to control costs. Like for instance the chassis used for Porsche Cayenne down to say
VW spark plug wires that are used for the mid-size luxury sports utility vehicle are developed in partnership with Volkswagen.
Volkswagen said in a statement that it welcomed the step by Porsche to increase its take and explained that a “stable shareholder structure” is vital to the continuous success of the company. According to one unnamed source inside Volkswagen, “We are protected against further other approaches maybe by other investors which could break up the company.”
Analysts are also expecting for Porsche to gradually increase its stake in Volkswagen over the next few years in line with the goals of Porsche’s main shareholder and chairman, Ferdinand Piech.
