Just over a month ago Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Deiss assured everyone on the third quarter earnings call that the company would not be selling off assets. This came in the face of growing concerns that the company was looking to offload Lamborghini and Ducati, and that Porsche might be spun off with its own initial public offering. Porsche, in particular, is exploring an IPO as a way to fund its quite expensive transition to electric vehicles, according to a report from Reuters. The Taycan has proven quite successful, and I have a feeling the upcoming Macan EV will also sell like proverbial hotcakes, but those cars aren’t inexpensive to develop.
Speculation surrounding this idea first surfaced a little over a year ago. Listing Porsche as its own company could be a massive win for the group, as its stake in the company would skyrocket in value and consumers would be desperate to own a chunk of the company. Current reports indicate that a Porsche offering would be worth something like 100 billion dollars, which is only slightly shy of Volkswagen group’s market cap.
Germany’s Hadelsblatt financial reporting magazine indicated that Volkswagen’s largest shareholders, the Porsche and Piech families, would consider selling some of their Volkswagen stake to then purchase a lot of shares of Porsche in this potential IPO. The families collectively own 31.4 percent of Volkswagen shares, and could theoretically sell enough shares to raise 15 billion euros. Even with this sale in mind, they would remain the largest shareholders in Volkswagen, just ahead of the state of Lower Saxony, which owns 11.8 percent of the company.
Deiss is on track to remain CEO of Volkswagen, despite a recent power struggle at the company, though he will do so with reduced authority.