VW Golf R32: soon a Porsche product?
Is Porsche about to take over VW?
Porsche just keeps going from strength to strength: its sales are up, its share price is rising -- and in its boldest move yet, it's just made a bid to increase its stake in VW.
According to Reuters, Porsche has sought German anti-trust authority clearance to raise its voting stake in Volkswagen to a blocking minority of 25.1 per cent.
In its way is a law, known in Germany as the Volkwagen Law because it was enacted in order to prevent take-over of the iconic firm, that stops any shareholder exercising more than 20 per cent of the votes, no matter how big their stake. However, the EU is in the process of challenging that law as anti-competitive.
So if the law is overturned and/or the German monopoly authorities allow Porsche to increase its stake in the company by another 3.9 per cent, it's become clear that Porsche is in effect making a bid for control of the company, according to industry analysts.
Critics reckon Porsche's stake would result in a conflict of interest, especially for VW chairman Ferdinand Piech, whose family controls Porsche.
In the shifting sands of automotive corporate ownership, the move might make a lot of sense but what will it mean for the cars? For example, some 30 per cent of the content for Porsche's vehicles comes form VW so the move has positive implications for Porsche. But what about VW? That's harder to read -- we'll have to wait and see.