Porsche turned down yesterday an offer from its bigger rival Volkswagen (VW) to help the cash-strapped sports carmaker out of its financial difficulties.
“It is not a practicable way for us to sell 49.9 percent of Porsche AG to VW,” a spokesman for Porsche told German media.
Porsche said it could not accept the VW offer because it would mean Porsche would then have to repay immediately a 10.75 billion euro (US$15 billion) credit it had previously agreed with a bank consortium, the spokesman said.
Volkswagen had publicly denied on Sunday it had set Porsche an ultimatum for agreeing on the merger deal, after Porsche bosses had accused their rival of “extortion.”
Tensions surfaced after a weekend report on the website of Der Spiegel magazine claimed that Volkswagen had set Porsche a deadline of today to agree to a merger plan, or otherwise pay back a 700 million euro loan.
Porsche chairman Wolfgang Porsche and his deputy on the Stuttgart-based company’s supervisory board, Uwe Huck, then released a statement in which they vowed not to “accept extortion.”
“Ultimatums do not belong in the 21st century,” the Porsche bosses said. “We hope very much in the interest of the common goals that its authors regain their calm and will pursue their proposals in internal talks and not via headlines.”
But Volkswagen denied yesterday that it had made such a demand.
“There is no ultimatum,” a spokesman for the Wolfsburg-based company said.
Der Spiegel said the plan put to Porsche would see Volkswagen take a 49.9 percent stake in the luxury carmaker before the Qatar Investment Authority acquired Porsche’s Volkswagen shares.
The combined entity formed as a result of these steps would be 40 percent owned by the Porsche and Piech families, with the Qataris taking 15 percent and another sovereign wealth fund picking up 5 percent.
Some 20 percent would be held by the state of Lower Saxony, a key investor in Volkswagen.
Porsche could yet seek to avoid the embrace of Volkswagen by going it alone with the Qataris.
The row is the latest twist in a saga that has seen Porsche, once Volkswagen’s predator and now its majority shareholder with a 51 percent stake, lose its advantage.
Porsche made its first move on Volkswagen in 2005, when it bought a 20 percent stake.
It continued to snap up options on more shares, until the size of its holding became clear and many hedge funds that had been short-selling Volkswagen — lending out shares before buying them back — scrambled to close their positions.
This stampede of panic-buying sent Volkswagen’s shares sky-high and gave Porsche a 6.8 billion euro windfall from the sale of options.
However, the cost of acquiring the extra shares in Volkswagen contributed to Porsche’s 9 billion euro debt pile.
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
The Philippines yesterday criticized a “high-risk” maneuver by a Chinese vessel near the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) in a rare incident involving warships from the two navies. The Scarborough Shoal — a triangular chain of reefs and rocks in the contested South China Sea — has been a flash point between the countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012. Taiwan also claims the shoal. Monday’s encounter took place approximately 11.8 nautical miles (22km) southeast” of the Scarborough Shoal, the Philippine military said, during ongoing US-Philippine military exercises that Beijing has criticized as destabilizing. “The Chinese frigate BN 554 was
LEISURE: The new law adds Confucius’ birthday, the anniversary of the Battle of Guningtou, Constitution Day and Little New Year as national holidays The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed new legislation adding four national holidays and making Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party used their combined majority in the legislature to push the jointly proposed draft through its third and final reading. This new law supersedes the existing regulations for the implementation of memorial days and state holidays, which are administered by the Ministry of the Interior. The new law recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the anniversary of the Battle of Guningtou on Oct. 25, Constitution Day on Dec. 25 and “Little New Year,”
RSS