In the latest chapter of the Porsche - Volkswagen takeover saga, Porsche announced earlier today that it now owns 35.14 percent of Volkswagen Group, which means that under German law, VW has become a subsidiary of Porsche Automobil Holding. Porsche also claims that, because of its share in VW, it is obliged to make an offer for ownership of Volkswagen-owned Audi .
Porsche’s CEO, Wendelin Wiedeking, says that the automaker intends to increase its stake in VW from just over 35 percent to 50 percent and that Audi would remain under Volkswagen in the new family tree.
Automotive News Europereports that Porsche will offer to buy the approximately 370,000 publicly available shares in Audi (worth about 170 million euros). The other 99.14 percent of Audi is owned by Volkswagen , which says it will not accept Porsche’s offer to buy. Still, Porsche says it is obligated to buy the shares from Volkswagen.
Wiedeking says he had hoped for a quick solution of this increasingly dramatic situation, but it appears that Volkswagen’s works council won’t allow that. Volkswagen says that its brand is underrepresented in Porsche’s supervisory board.
