Volkswagen Group approves Porsche IPO

Oliver Blume, CEO of Volkswagen Group and Porsche.

There is no brand that gives the Volkswagen Group more margin than Porsche.

Each of its vehicles provides an average operating margin of 17,800 euros, a much higher figure than that of Audi (around 6,400 euros) or that of the parent brand, Volkswagen, which barely contributes 1,500 euros per car sold, according to the report of the first half of the automobile consortium.

And now the German consortium wants to polish off that asset, taking it to the stock market at the end of September or the beginning of October.

The decision was confirmed by the group's management and supervisory boards at their meeting on Monday.

The decision is part of the group's strategy of taking advantage of its most powerful assets to obtain resources with which to promote its investment plan.

It has already removed its truck subsidiary from the stock market and has announced its desire to follow the same steps with PowerCo, the company through which it intends to manage its battery cell plants.

"The IPO will give the group more business flexibility to apply the New Auto strategy and would generate a tangible tailwind for the transformation towards an integrated mobility company," the group's chief financial officer, Arno Antlitz, said in a statement. .

The group's plans remain unscathed despite the dismissal last July of what was until then the CEO of the consortium, Herbert Diess.

In fact, the appointment of his successor gave more strength to Porsche's exit to the parquet, since the group will be led by Oliver Blume, maintaining his position as the sports brand's chief executive.

To carry out the operation, Porsche's capital will be divided into 50% preferred shares and 50% common shares.

25% will be placed on the stock market.

Porsche Automobil Holding, the majority shareholder of the Volkswagen Group, will control 25% plus one share of Porsche's capital after buying it from Volkswagen with a 7.5% premium on the starting price of the sale, which Bloomberg places between 60,000 and 85,000 million euros, according to analysis houses.

The sovereign fund of Qatar (Qatar Investment Authority) has stated its desire to keep 4.9% of the shares.

Other packages will be offered to private investors from Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy and Spain.

49% of the gross income from operations will be distributed in dividends.

The million vehicles that Porsche sells a year and the income would continue to appear on the balance sheet of Volkswagen, which would incorporate the luxury brand by global consolidation.

At a time of unprecedented transformation in the automotive industry and with the health crisis hitting all the brands that compete by volume, luxury brands have become an oasis of profitability.

The best known case is that of the Ferrari supercars, valued at 33,000 million euros and facing an investment of 4,400 million euros to be electrified, a strategy that Porsche has already initiated.