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After years of speculation and months of scrutiny, the sports car manufacturer Porsche is making its stock market debut today. The most important questions and answers.
How much will the stock cost? The issue price per preferred share was set at EUR 82.50 on Wednesday and was thus at the upper end of the previously announced range of EUR 76.50 to EUR 82.50 per share. This had already been expected in view of the high demand from investors. A total of almost 114 million preferred shares will be placed. The first listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange flushed almost 9.4 billion euros into the coffers of the parent company Volkswagen.
What does the boss say about the IPO? “We are very pleased that we were able to carry out a successful IPO for Porsche AG,” said VW CFO Arno Antlitz. The high demand shows the confidence of investors in Porsche. The sports car manufacturer is now benefiting from more agility and entrepreneurial independence. The proceeds from the IPO gave Volkswagen more financial flexibility in the transformation towards electromobility and digitization.
How much money is it? Based on what is probably Porsche’s best-known model, there are a total of 911 million individual securities. Based on the issue price, this means a market capitalization of around 75 billion euros. In preparation for the IPO, the share capital was divided equally between voting ordinary shares and non-voting preference shares.
Legend:
With its IPO, Porsche collects 9.4 billion euros.
Keystone/Michael Probst
What happens to the income? The Wolfsburg-based company wants to use the proceeds to finance billions in investments in electromobility and digital, among other things. According to earlier information, almost 49 percent of the proceeds could go to the VW shareholders – an extraordinary general meeting is to vote on this in December. Also the VW employees in the company tariff and in Saxony waving a bonus of 2000 euros. Porsche has not yet officially announced the amount of a possible bonus for employees.
What does the IPO mean for the company? The people of Stuttgart hope that going onto the floor will take them a step towards more independence again. In 2008/2009, the Stuttgart-based company tried to take over VW – that failed, and the Lower Saxony company swallowed up the sports car manufacturer. Since then, Porsche has been considered a pearl of return in the VW Group and is aiming for long-term operating earnings before interest and taxes of 20 percent. Such margins can only be achieved in the luxury sector and with corresponding prices.
Is Porsche the largest IPO in Germany? According to data from the service provider Refinitiv, Deutsche Telekom had raised 9.65 billion euros with its IPO in 1996. Porsche follows in second place with 9.4 billion euros. If you add the sale of the ordinary shares to the owning families, it would even be the largest IPO in Europe. The Italian energy giant Enel, whose IPO 23 years ago brought in 15.8 billion euros, has been the leader in this category so far.