(AOF) – On Sunday, September 18, the management board of Volkswagen AG, with the approval of the supervisory board, set an investment price range for the preferred shares of Porsche AG, i.e. a value between 76.50 and 82 50 euros per preferred share, which would represent a valuation of 70 to 75 billion euros for the luxury car manufacturer. Volkswagen shares gained 2.9% in the first pre-market trading.
In total, it is planned to place with investors up to 113,875,000 preferred shares from the participations of Volkswagen AG within the framework of the IPO. This includes a base offering of 99,021,740 preferred shares as well as an additional 14,853,260 preferred shares to cover over-allotments. The preferred shares of Porsche AG are expected to begin trading on September 29, 2022.
If the IPO is successful, Volkswagen AG will convene an extraordinary general meeting in December 2022, during which it will propose to its shareholders to distribute at the beginning of 2023 a special dividend of 49% of the total gross proceeds from the placement of the preferred shares and the sale of common shares. This amount is divided equally between the 501,295,263 outstanding ordinary and preference shares of Volkswagen AG.
The share purchase agreement underlying the transfer of 25% plus one share of the ordinary share capital of Porsche AG is dated September 18, 2022 and was concluded between Porsche Holding Stuttgart GmbH as seller and Porsche Automobil Holding SE as buyer with participation of Volkswagen AG as guarantor.
Currently, Porsche Automobil Holding SE holds approximately 53.3% of the ordinary share capital and in total approximately 31.9% of the share capital of Volkswagen AG, the latter holding 100% of the shares of Porsche Holding Stuttgart GmbH. Therefore, Porsche Automobil Holding SE is considered a related party (“nahestehende Person”) of Volkswagen AG and Porsche Holding Stuttgart GmbH within the meaning of Section 111a para. 1 sentence 2 of the German Joint Stock Company Act.
The supervisory board of Volkswagen AG has given its consent to the conclusion of the share purchase agreement on September 5, 2022 in accordance with article 111b para. 1 of the German Joint Stock Company Act.