Porsche Becomes VW's Major Shareholder

Porsche, the German maker of luxury sports cars, said on Friday that it had amassed a stake of more than 18 percent in Volkswagen, making it the biggest single shareholder in Europe's leading car maker. Porsche said in a statement that after already acquiring a stake of 10.26 percent, it had secured a further 8.27-percent stake, meaning that its total shareholding would amount to 18.53 percent once the shares had been handed over. The deal was expected to be completed "during the month of October", Porsche said. "We will then be the biggest single shareholder in VW and will aim to have a corresponding representation on VW's supervisory board," the car maker said. In addition, Porsche had hedged against a continued rise in VW's

share price by taking out a so-called call option on a further stake of 3.40 percent which it could buy via the open market. Porsche insisted that its final stake in VW would not reach the limit that would compel it to launch a public takeover offer for all of VW shares. Porsche had said last month that it intended to buy around 20 percent of VW's share capital to help guard it against possible foreign predators. In the past, the regional state authorities of Lower Saxony were the biggest shareholder in VW with a stake of 18.2 percent.