Porsche Tidbits

[safristi]

..I just love it when synergies arise from relations.....I could see me and Scarlett Johanssen synergizing till the cows come home............inna Cayman    even better...applaud MAGNA cum STARE'eh............

[G35X]

Porsche increased its stakes in VW to 42.6% and indicated it would further raise them to 75% in 2009 (subject to government approval).  I do not know how much percentage of ownership makes Porsche/VW/Audi as one company, but I think we are now seeing the effect of EuroV and EuroVI CO2 emission regulations.  The required 120 grams/km CAFE is very tough to meet and the 95 euros/gram/km/car penalty is substantial.  For high-performance car manufactures diluting the effect of the penalty by selling many, many EV’s, hybrids and micro cars is becoming a must if they want to survive.  In NA also the US government is talking about increasing the CAFE to 35mpg or about 14kmpl (7 litres/100km).  I do not think the US automakers can oppose to this proposal because of the rescue loan they just got from the government.  The age of EV’s, hybrids and micro cars is coming soon.

[tpl]

i do not understand why huge employers like the Auto industry, NA or Eu, just don't tell the government to stuff it... on the threat of laying off many thousands of people and  then just shutting down.

I agree that the CAFE in the USA needs to come up a bit but the Eu fleet fuel economy is good enough and is limited in some respects by the price of fuel. 

We will be in a world where only politicians can have big fast cars... USSR anyone?

[safristi]

  BACK(engined)IN THE USSR....and i don't mean BEETLES   i can see me an Olga nearby tha Volga wif a BIG DAKKA......... ...........(.souf efrican Ganga)....

[sirAQUAMAN64]

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/28/volkswagen-temporarily-becomes-largest-company-in-the-world/

Unbelievable. I take it Porsche must have options to purchase at a lower set price? Purchasing at trade prices would be tough for anyone to pull off.

[The Mighty Duck]

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/28/volkswagen-temporarily-becomes-largest-company-in-the-world/

Unbelievable. I take it Porsche must have options to purchase at a lower set price? Purchasing at trade prices would be tough for anyone to pull off.

Yup.  Porsche owns 43% of VW shares outright, and has derivative contracts on another 32% (as of a few days ago, at least).  Between Porsche and government and index funds, that accounts for almost all of the available shares in VW AG.

The biggest problem was for Hedge Funds, which bet against Porsche and short sold VW stock.  Whoops...

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Porsche gets $980M loan from VW, adding twist to merger saga

May 25, 2009 - 8:04 am ET

STUTTGART, Germany (Reuters) -- Porsche confirmed on Monday it got a 700 million euro ($980 million) loan from its Volkswagen unit but insisted it could cope with its debt woes.

"Porsche is not on the verge of insolvency even if that is alleged over and over," a company spokesman said, referring to media reports about the German group whose takeover of VW has stalled, forcing it instead to seek a merger with VW.

Volkswagen had said over the weekend it loaned the money to its biggest shareholder, adding a bizarre twist to Porsche's aborted effort to take full control of Europe's largest automaker.

Porsche, which owns a 51 percent voting stake in VW, said the loan matured at the end of September 2009.

Laboring under a 9 billion euro load of debt it had accumulated by the end of January, Porsche was forced to abandon a complete takeover of the Wolfsburg-based carmaker.

German weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported that the loan was made to help prop up Porsche's finances earlier this year and that Porsche's owners had put up Porsche Holding GmbH as collateral.

Porsche Holding is an Austria-based automotive wholesale distribution firm owned by the Porsche and Piech families, who also control Porsche Automobil Holding SE.

In March, Porsche Automobil Holding SE was struggling to raise 12.5 billion euros in loans to cover the cost of refinancing debt.

Porsche eventually raised 10 billion euros, and in the past week said it had raised a further 750 million euros. The company is still on the lookout for the extra 1.75 billion in loans.

After abandoning its takeover plans, Porsche Automobil Holding SE is now seeking a merger with VW.

The Porsche spokesman said talks were being held at the executive board level and that no timetable for concluding them had been agreed.

The partners had originally aimed to wrap up the talks on creating an integrated automotive group by early June.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Porsche, Volkswagen set for merger showdown


Automotive News
July 5, 2009 - 12:01 am ET

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -- Porsche's squabbling owners are set to discuss an investment by Qatar in the next two weeks, a milestone that could change the dynamics of a Porsche-Volkswagen merger, people close to the talks said.

A decision on Qatar's entry may come even before key family members are set to gather at a Volkswagen supervisory board meeting on July 15 the people said. A day later, VW's luxury unit Audi holds its centenary celebrations.

Spokesmen for Porsche and VW declined to comment.

A successful investment from Qatar could strengthen Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking's negotiating hand as he tries to strike a deal with VW.

Without it Porsche will struggle to prop up its finances and may have little choice but to succumb to a reverse takeover from VW, Europe's biggest carmaker.

Porsche, which owns 51 percent of VW, is seeking an outside investor after amassing 9 billion euros ($12.62 billion) in debt during a bungled attempt to dominate Volkswagen.

Struggling under the debt, Porsche was forced to abandon efforts to raise its VW stake to 75 percent and is now seeking to bolster its finances before negotiating a deal to form an "integrated" company with VW.

Porsche's chances of setting the terms of any accord are looking slim. Wiedeking has so far failed to secure 1.75 billion euros in loans it wants from commercial banks or from KFW, a state-controlled bank in Germany.

The Quatar hope

He is pinning his hopes on striking a deal with Qatar, but his plans may be scotched by Porsche's owners and by VW's ability to set the terms of a deal.

Qatar "could help Porsche avoid a bigger financial problem," Credit Suisse analyst Arndt Ellinghorst said. "But ultimately any deal has to be supported by VW and Lower Saxony."

Lower Saxony, VW's home state, is VW's second-biggest shareholder with a blocking minority stake of around 20 percent.

Porsche is heavily dependent on Volkswagen, making it hard for the Stuttgart-based automaker to walk away from a deal.

Volkswagen is one of Porsche's most important suppliers, delivering or assembling components for a third of all Porsche cars, including the body and engine for the four-door Panamera sedan and Cayenne SUV models.

Porsche is also financially dependent on VW after receiving a 700 million euro loan to help pay down its debt.

Porsche has said it is close to securing an investment from Qatar. But a deal hasn't been signed, mainly due to uncertainty over whether the clans that own Porsche would for the first time cede voting rights to an outsider, one source said.

Qatar's ability to strike a deal depends in large part on Ferdinand Piech, a key member of Porsche's owning families who has signaled his opposition toward any outside investor in Porsche.

Piech veto power

The Piech family controls a stake of just under half in Porsche Automobil Holding SE but can veto significant decisions. Porsche's owners need a 66.6 percent or even 75 percent consensus for approving important decisions, Ferdinand Piech said in an interview in Stern magazine in April 2008.

This effectively gives the Piech family the ability to veto a deal between Qatar and Porsche. Piech and his brother Hans Michel together hold just over 26 percent of Porsche.

Qatar has submitted a non-binding offer to invest in Porsche voting shares and in VW share options held by Porsche, but details are not yet fixed over pricing and exact stakes, according to one person close to the deal. Porsche owns share options which control a stake of at least 20 percent in VW.

Qatar is approaching a potential investment in Porsche as a passive financial investor and is open to investing in either company, the person said.

Ferdinand Piech, also the chairman of Volkswagen, has proposed that Porsche sell its sports car business to VW, a move opposed by his cousin and Porsche Chairman Wolfgang Porsche.

One way for Piech to pressure his cousin is to block cooperation deals between Porsche and VW, a factor that makes it difficult for Porsche to go it alone.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Now this is more like it... 

VW to pay $11.28 billion for all of Porsche, report says

Automotive News
July 18, 2009 - 12:01 am ET
UPDATED: 7/18/09 10:57 a.m. ET

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -- Porsche SE's controlling families will agree on Thursday to accept an offer by Volkswagen to buy its sports car business Porsche AG for roughly 8 billion euros ($11.28 billion), Der Spiegel reported on Saturday.

Germany's leading weekly magazine wrote that the rival Porsche and Piech clans, which own 100 percent of Porsche SE votes, will approve the two-stage takeover at a supervisory board meeting on July 23.

Volkswagen would purchase a 49.9 percent stake in Porsche AG and at a later date acquire the rest, in a deal that would create an integrated automotive group with 10 brands under the leadership of the Wolfsburg-based carmaker.

The sale would help Porsche SE pay off most of its debt, which two sources told Reuters has ballooned to considerably more than 10 billion euros.

Der Spiegel also said embattled Porsche SE and Porsche AG CEO Wendelin Wiedeking is negotiating over a severance package that could total more than 100 million euros.  In the meantime, production chief Michael Macht will replace him as head of Porsche AG, the magazine reported.

On Thursday, Wiedeking rejected speculation he was about to leave the group.

Asked on Saturday whether the two families have reached a decision for the July 23 board meeting, Porsche spokesman Anton Hunger said "we have not been informed of one," adding that the Spiegel report was speculation that the company would not comment on.

Separately rival German weekly magazine Focus reported that Volkswagen's powerful chairman and part-owner of Porsche, Ferdinand Piech, plans to remove Wiedeking on Thursday from the influential six-man steering committee on the VW supervisory board.

The vacancy could open up the opportunity for Piech's cousin and rival, Wolfgang Porsche, VW supervisory board member and Porsche SE chairman, to replace Wiedeking in the committee as a representative of his side of the family.

The grandfather of Wolfgang Porsche and Ferdinand Piech was Ferdinand Porsche, designer of the Beetle and founder of Volkswagen.

[vdk]

Autoblog

The head of the Volkswagen Group, Martin Winterkorn, spoke with Autocar about the possibility of a new entry level Porsche model. Perhaps fancifully dubbed the 356, the new model would slot into Porsche's lineup below the Boxster and Cayman. In England, the new baby Porsche would cost about £33,000, which means nothing to us here in the U.S. and is about what a base Boxster costs. That said, the article mentions the possibility that the next generation Boxster and Cayman might go way up scale.

Big question: what would this new 356 be? Autocar speculates that the 356 will be based heavily on the mid-engine architecture of the upcoming Audi R4 and the conceptual Volkswagen Bluesport. We don't know if the 356 will be strictly a coupe or also be available as a roadster. In fact, we don't even know if the R4 will be coupe-only. We'd image the two cars will have similar, if not identical, body configurations. Though not the engine. In order to keep some brand DNA in the Porsche, the 356 will ship with a new forced-induction flat-four.

Those that remember the 944 Turbo S and the 968 know this is in no way a bad thing – except the 924 Turbo's engine was the EA831 inline-four originally intended for the Volkswagen Bus and Audi 100. It was never really any good, even in turbo form. The reborn 356's mill (most likely a turbo as opposed to supercharged) should be good for around 250 horsepower – very close to where the base Boxster/Cayman currently sits. Expect the 356 to get much better fuel economy, however.

The new 356 will share a transmission with the R4. Again, the 924, 944 and 968 shipped with a modified Audi 100 transmission acting as a transaxle, so there is precedence. As to what that transmission will be, we don't know but we'd guess a DSG of some sort. Audi's R4 should arrive sometime in 2011, with the Porsche 356 bowing in 2012. Is any of this going to actually, you know, happen? Magic 8-Ball says, "Ask again later."



Anyone care for a 356?

[DrJay]

Hmmm until I see it and of course know what it may cost, maybe. that said, so far the suggestion alone, (based on the limited description) leaves me somewhat underwhelmed. 

[vdk]

VW, Audi and Porsche should share the platform - this way more people could afford it.

[DrJay]

VW, Audi and Porsche should share the platform - this way more people could afford it.

But wouldn't that errode the illusion of exclusivity?  share it and they (Porche) become just like lexus or infinity et al

[vdk]

VW, Audi and Porsche should share the platform - this way more people could afford it.

But wouldn't that errode the illusion of exclusivity?  share it and they (Porche) become just like lexus or infinity et al

It's not gonna be the first Porsche to share a platform with VW/Audi.

[DrJay]

VW, Audi and Porsche should share the platform - this way more people could afford it.

But wouldn't that errode the illusion of exclusivity?  share it and they (Porche) become just like lexus or infinity et al

It's not gonna be the first Porsche to share a platform with VW/Audi.

Meh busted! I realized that the second I posted it, lol but thanks for calling me on it you are right.