Porsche plans to increase its stake in Volkswagen to 31 percent — a move that will force the sports car maker to make a formal bid to acquire all of VW. German law requires Porsche to make a takeover bid if its stake in VW exceeds 30 percent.
“ Porsche is firmly convinced that a closer bond with VW through an increase of the stake to more than 30% of the Volkswagen ordinary shares will produce benefits for both partners without diluting or indeed endangering the identity of Porsche,” Porsche said in a statement to investors and the media. “Quite the contrary: Porsche will perform its economic and social role even more strongly.”
Porsche will likely present the lowest offer it can legally make — roughly $134 per share, rather than the full $156. A Porsche spokesman told the Wall Street Journal his company doesn’t expect shareholders to accept the bid, but Porsche is open to a buyout at that price point.
Rather than taking over VW, Porsche aims to secure its relationship with the automaker by preventing a hostile takeover by any other company. If Porsche is able to increase its stake to 31 percent — even without acquiring all of VW — it will effectively prevent a takeover by anyone else. That’s because the German state of Lower Saxony owns 20 percent of Volkswagen, and it shares Porsche’s desire to keep VW out of foreign or competing hands. Combined, the two will have a stake of at least 51 percent in VW.
