Fri, September 30, 2022
BERLIN (Reuters) -A German court on Friday rejected claims by investors for billions of euros in damages over a failed attempt by Porsche SE to take over Volkswagen.
Porsche SE's Oct. 2008 notification, in which it declared that it had already secured almost three quarters of Volkswagen through purchases and option transactions, was not grossly misleading or false, Judge Matthias Wiese said in his ruling.
Hedge funds and private investors accused Porsche's management of concealing its true intentions prior to the Oct. 2008 announcement that made it clear it wanted to take control of the much larger Wolfsburg-based automaker.
As a result, investors who had bet on falling prices with short sales were caught on the wrong foot when Volkswagen's stock price jumped to over 1,000 euros per share, briefly making it the most valuable company in the world.
The plaintiffs, who claimed share price losses of 5.4 billion euros ($5.27 billion), are expected to appeal. Porsche SE, through which the Porsche and Piech families hold a majority stake in Volkswagen, welcomed the ruling.
($1 = 1.0246 euros)
(Reporting by Jan C Schwartz; writing by Miranda Murray; editing by Jason Neely and Elaine Hardcastle)
Porsche shares flat at close after landmark $72 billion listing
By Victoria Waldersee and Emma-Victoria Farr
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Porsche AG shares had a see-saw start on Thursday, after Volkswagen defied volatile markets to list the sports car brand at a valuation of 75 billion euros ($72 billion) in Germany's second-biggest market debut.
The shares closed at 82.50 euros ($80.74), returning to their issue price from the session high of 86.76 euros.
Volkswagen priced Porsche AG shares the top end of the indicated range, and raised 19.5 billion euros via the listing to fund the group's electrification drive.
Cornerstone investors including Qatar Investment Authority, T. Rowe Price, Norway's sovereign wealth fund and Abu Dhabi's laid claim to 40% of the share offering.
Some 25% plus one ordinary share went to the Porsche and Piech families via Porsche SE, Volkswagen's largest shareholder which now has a blocking minority on the sportscar brand.
The shares peaked at 86.76 in late morning.
The share performance puts Porsche AG's valuation at about 75.43 billion euros, only slightly below former parent Volkswagen, which is worth around 80.1 billion euros, and ahead of rivals such as Ferrari. It is Germany's biggest listing since Deutsche Telekom in 1996.
Shares in Porsche SE, Volkswagen's largest shareholder, which now also owns a blocking minority in the sportscar brand, were down by 10.9% as investors switched across. Volkswagen's shares were down 6.9% from Thursday's open to 128.5 euros.
Traders said some investors who bought Volkswagen and Porsche SE as an IPO play could be unwinding their positions and switching into Porsche AG, undermining Volkswagen's aim of bumping up its capitalisation by showcasing the value of just one of its brands.
"Porsche was and is the pearl in the Volkswagen Group," said Chris-Oliver Schickentanz, chief investment officer at fund manager Capitell. "The IPO has now made it very, very transparent what value the market brings to Porsche."
Volkswagen CEO Arno Antlitz told Reuters the listing had done its part in helping to fund the carmaker's electrification drive.
Of the 19.5 billion euros raised from the IPO, around 9.6 billion will go to Volkswagen - just under a fifth of the 52-billion euro budget needed for electrification plans - with the rest distributed among shareholders as a special dividend.
"We are well set-up financially have strong cash flows to fund our electromobility strategy ourselves," the chief financial officer said.
'NOT A DREAM ENVIRONMENT'
Volkswagen priced Porsche AG shares at the top of the range despite broadly weaker stock markets after red-hot German inflation data and general market turmoil stirred by rising interest rates.
"This is not exactly a dream environment for an IPO today," said QC Partners wealth manager Thomas Altmann.
Volkswagen has said the market's volatility was precisely why fund managers were sorely in need of a stable and profitable business like Porsche AG in which to invest.
A banker involved in the transaction described the Porsche listing as a one-off, predicting the market would freeze over again very soon.
The listing broke records, reaping the highest amount since Deutsche Telekom in 1996.
But Porsche is trading at a multiple of around 7.2 times its earnings - far below Ferrari's multiple of 40.
Companies in the region have raised $44 billion from equity capital markets deals up to Sept. 27, Refinitiv data shows, with only $4.5 billion from initial public offerings.
"There's a lot to like about the company, with its aggressive electrification plans, expected strong cashflow generation and premium brand positioning in the market," Chi Chan, Portfolio Manager European Equities at Federated Hermes Limited, told Reuters.
"However, it is coming to market at a time of unprecedented turmoil and consumer confidence is falling."
Graphic: Porsche vs rivals and VW https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/movanxjjqpa/Porsche.PNG
Porsche AG Chief Executive Blume, whose dual role as the new head of Volkswagen has drawn criticism from some investors, hailed the listing as an "historic moment" and dismissed the idea that he would at some point give up one of the two positions.
Up to 113,875,000 Porsche AG preferred shares, carrying no voting rights, were sold in the initial public offering.
Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan worked as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners on the deal, while Mediobanca acted as financial adviser to Porsche.
($1 = 1.0218 euros)
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Emma-Victoria Farr, Hakan Ersen, Christoph Steitz, Alexander Huebner, Sinead Cruise and Pamela Barbaglia; Writing by Victoria Waldersee and Matthias Williams; Editing by Jane Merriman, Mark Potter and David Goodman)
Thu, September 29, 2022
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Shares in Volkswagen's sportscar brand Porsche started trading on Thursday in what marks Germany's second-largest listing ever as well as a new phase in a sometimes fraught relationship between the two auto brands that goes back decades.
1931
Ferdinand Porsche opens a design office, the first stage of a business that will later become the eponymous sports car maker.
1938
Porsche, who designed the first VW Beetle, oversees the building of the first production hall for Volkswagen.
1960
State-owned Volkswagen is privatised, with both the federal government and the company's home state of Lower Saxony receiving a 20% stake.
1993
Ferdinand Porsche's grandson Ferdinand Piech becomes chief executive of Volkswagen, meaning "the people's car" in German. His revolutionary "platform strategy", which involves using the same basic design for different models and adding bespoke components on top, allowed economies of scale and was credited with saving the company from possible collapse.
2002
Piech appoints Bernd Pischetsrieder as his successor as CEO and Piech becomes Volkswagen's chairman, a position he will hold until 2015.
2005
September - Porsche says it plans to buy a 20% stake in VW and later emerges with a 10.3% voting stake.
November - Porsche's supervisory board authorises an increase in the stake to 29.9%, triggering speculation it plans to gain majority control.
2007
April - Porsche submits a mandatory takeover offer for Volkswagen after crossing 30% threshold.
2008
March - Porsche SE's supervisory board gives the go-ahead to raise its Volkswagen voting stake to over 50%.
October - Porsche SE says it holds stock and options that give it control of 74% of Volkswagen's votes and announces plans for a "domination" agreement. A resulting scramble for Volkswagen shares by shortsellers caught out by the announcement briefly makes VW the world's most valuable company.
2009
January - Porsche SE says it has raised its VW voting stake to 50.8% and confirms its plan to raise stake to 75% later if conditions allow.
May - Porsche SE drops the Volkswagen takeover plan and says it will instead pursue a merger with Europe's largest auto maker. Volkswagen Chairman Piech says Porsche must get its 9 billion euro debt under control before any deal can be agreed.
July - Porsche SE Chairman Wolfgang Porsche, Piech's cousin, calls an extraordinary supervisory board meeting for July 23 to discuss a possible sale of a stake in Porsche SE to Qatar worth over 5 billion euros. A proposal by Porsche's board to prepare for a capital increase of at least 5 billion euros ($5 billion) in cash and/or a contribution in kind, is approved by the supervisory board, setting the stage for a merger with Volkswagen. Porsche SE Wendelin Wiedeking steps down.
December - Volkswagen says it has bought 49.9% of Porsche SE's sports car business Porsche AG at a cost of 3.9 billion euros.
2010
January - A group of investment funds sues Porsche SE and two of its former top executives, accusing them of fraud in a "short squeeze" that caused the funds to lose more than $1 billion from Porsche's attempted takeover of Volkswagen AG in 2008.
April - Elliott Associates, L.P. says the securities fraud and manipulation lawsuit against Porsche SE has got bigger, that it is seeking more than $2 billion in losses and 18 investment funds have joined the lawsuit.
October - Auto holding Porsche SE says it may not be absorbed into Volkswagen by the end of 2011, as planned, due to some unresolved legal and tax issues related to the deal, the CEO of both companies, Martin Winterkorn, says.
2012
July - Volkswagen agrees to buy the remaining 50.1% stake in Porsche AG from Porsche SE for about 4.5 billion euros.
Porsche AG, the carmaker, is now fully owned by Volkswagen AG, while Porsche SE, which is controlled by the Porsche and Piech families, is Volkswagen's largest shareholder and holds a majority of voting rights.
2022
February - Volkswagen and Porsche SE say they are examining a possible initial public offering of Porsche AG, under a proposed structure that would give Porsche SE a blocking minority in the eponymous carmaker.
September - Volkswagen announces its intention to list Porsche at the end of September or early October. On Sept. 29, shares in Porsche AG start trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange at 84 euros apiece, above the issue price of 82.5 euros.
($1 = 0.9984 euros)
(Compiled by Christoph Steitz; editing by Alistair Bell and Jason Neely)
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