Dhe Porsche AG is scheduled to go public on September 29th. From then on, the Volkswagen subsidiary from Stuttgart will in all likelihood allow some of its preferred shares to be traded freely on the financial market. This was decided by the board of directors and the supervisory board of the VW Group after meetings on Sunday evening.
For the start of the stock exchange in Frankfurt, the Wolfsburg-based company and the umbrella company Porsche SE (PSE) had previously generally aimed for the end of September/beginning of October. A specific day was initially not mentioned – the decision to go onto the floor was still subject to change due to the tense global economic situation.
However, the inspectors have already set the price range: the Porsche AG preference will be offered in a corridor between 76.50 and 82.50 euros per item. The plan is to issue almost 114 million shares. This includes almost 15 million papers for a possible over-allotment, as the parent company VW further announced. If everything goes as planned and the actual asking price levels off in the range mentioned, gross proceeds of EUR 8.71 to 9.39 billion are expected.
Subscription period starts on Tuesday
The subscription period is scheduled to begin this Tuesday (September 20th). It goes up to one day before the IPO, provided that the financial regulator Bafin approves the securities prospectus. Private investors in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy and Spain should also be able to purchase some of the Porsche benefits.
VW Group CFO Arno Antlitz sees a decisive step taken: “We are now on the home straight with the Porsche stock market plans.” The fundamental decision was made two weeks ago.
Europe’s largest car group wants to tap additional sources of money. VW AG plans to use the proceeds to invest billions more in electromobility and digital. She also hopes to become more attractive to investors. Several analysts recently estimated Porsche’s valuation at 70 to 85 billion euros. Other forecasts assumed 80 to 100 billion euros, but others were well below that. VW is currently worth a good 87 billion euros on the financial market.
Half of the share capital of Porsche AG has already been split into non-voting preferred shares and half with voting ordinary shares. Up to a quarter of the assets – about an eighth of all shares – are to go on sale soon.
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At the same time, Porsche SE gets 25 percent plus one share of the tribes, so it has an influence on important decisions through a blocking minority. This step has now also been firmly agreed: the supervisory board of Porsche SE approved a corresponding purchase agreement. Depending on the form of the final conditions on the day of the IPO, VW and Porsche-Holding calculate gross proceeds of 9.36 to 10.10 billion euros for the common stock business. Included here is a surcharge of 7.5 percent on the benefits.