In recent years it has seemed inevitable that every automotive manufacturer would be spun off into its own stock IPO. After all, why not? If Tesla can be valued over one trillion dollars, why can’t Porsche? What does Tesla have that Porsche doesn’t? We’ve recently seen Volvo’s Polestar spun off and IPO’d with a SPAC. The market has been buzzing at the prospect of dumping tons of cash into the Stuttgart manufacturer. Alas, it does not seem to be in the cards for the moment.
An initial public offering could be a good way for the company to raise some extra capital without doing much else different. After all, a Bloomberg analyst suggested to Automotive News that Porsche alone is ‘worth’ nearly as much as the entirety of the Volkswagen Group together, should it be spun off and listed on its own. They placed Porsche’s value at around 99 billion euros, while VW A.G. currently has a 122 billion-euro market cap.
Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess threw some water on the growing Porsche speculation wildfire this week. On Thursday Diess suggested that while the company has plans to seek external funding for EV batteries investment, it is not looking to divest assets at the moment.
While it would potentially be kind of cool for Porsche fanatics to invest their money in the company they love, and share in some of Porsche’s success, it seems that won’t be the case. At least for now. The company is in good shape and selling cars basically as quickly as they can be built. If it weren’t for chip shortages and wild supply chain delays, I’m sure Porsche’s deliveries in 2021 would be even higher than they already are. With that many cars basically jumping off the showroom floor, Porsche doesn’t really need an IPO right now anyway, does it?