Volkswagen AG clinched a 49.9 percent stake in Porsche AG and said it had "very good" sales in the third quarter, though sales in Germany are set to drop in 2010.
Volkswagen said on Tuesday it would pay 3.9 billion euros ($5.8 billion) to take a bigger-than-planned 49.9 percent stake in Porsche AG as a first step to a full merger with Porsche SE by 2011.
In August VW had said it would buy a 42 percent stake.
Separately at an event in Russia VW sales chief Detlef Wittig reiterated he expected demand for cars in Germany -- the auto maker's second largest market behind China -- to slump as tax incentives were phased out.
Wittig said he expected overall demand for cars to fall below 3.0 million units in Germany in 2010 from 3.7 million this year. Volkswagen has not specified what impact this might have on sales for the company.
Thanks to the help of incentives which encouraged consumers to buy smaller cars, Europe's largest auto maker had better-than-expected sales in the third quarter, leading the company to reiterate it expects to match 2008's sales levels.
"We will be stable this year in terms of unit sales. This is better than what we have expected. Third quarter was very good," Wittig said.
In 2008 VW delivered about 6.2 million vehicles globally. It is due to report third-quarter results on Oct. 29.
