Volkswagen has officially announced its purchase of a 49.9 per cent stake in Porsche's sports car business.
VW has paid 3.9 billion euros (£3.53bn) for its stake in Porsche AG, whose 10.3 per cent return on sales makes it one of the world's most profitable car makers. VW says that the "planned integration of Porsche in the Volkswagen Group and the associated closer cooperation will realize significant synergies on both the income and the cost side".
In short, VW says that the merger with Porsche will eventually be worth 700 million euros (£636 million). The acquisition by VW of Porsche Holding Salzburg and Porsche SE will then take place in 2011, completing the merger of the two companies.