Porsche to decide on new holding company for VW stake

Porsche will June 26 decide on setting up a European public company to oversee its stake in Volkswagen group.

The new holding company intends to trade under the name of "Porsche Automobil Holding SE," according to the invitation to a shareholders' meeting published Friday in Börsen-Zeitung and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Porsche announced the establishment of a holding company under the legal form of SE at the end of March when it increased its share in VW to more than 30 percent. The new holding company will own 100 percent of the shares in what is now Porsche, along with Porsche's 30.9 percent share in VW.

The sportscar manufacturer's operational business is to be spun off into a subsidiary under the company's original trading name of "Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG."

Porsche previously said that its intention in doing this was to guarantee that its operational business could be kept separate from its VW holding. It did not make any specific comment on a name or location for the new holding company in its announcement in March.

Having increased its stake to more than 30 percent, Porsche submitted an obligatory takeover offer for VW on Monday. However, at 100.92 euros per common stock, the offer falls some way short of VW's current share price. Industry experts therefore expect shareholders to reject the offer. The news from Stuttgart is that Porsche has no intention of acquiring a majority stake in VW at this time. The offer closes on May 29.

Porsche will make a decision on its intended conversion to a European Company (Societas Europaea) at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting scheduled for June 26.

Societas Europaea, or SE for short, is a European public limited company. An SE may be created on registration in any one of the member states of the European Economic Area (EEA).