German sports car maker Porsche took control of Volkswagen today by increasing its voting stake in Europe's biggest carmaker to 30.94 per cent as planned, Porsche said.
By exceeding the 30 per cent level, Porsche must, by German law, make a full takeover bid for VW. It reiterated it plans to offer the legal minimum for VW ordinary and preference shares, valuing VW at around €35.85 billion.
That is a sharp discount to VW's recent market capitalisation above 42 billion, but Porsche has made clear it does not intend or expect to get a majority of VW via the current cash bid, which still awaits German regulatory approval.
It reiterated it planned to offer €100.92 per ordinary share and said it expected to offer €65.45 per preference share based on a preliminary calculation of the average preference share price over the past three months.
Volkswagen ordinary shares were trading down 2.6 per cent at €110.50 earlier, while the preference shares were off 4.2 per cent at €73.55.
Porsche has stressed that making a bid now means it would not have to make subsequent mandatory takeover offers should it raise its VW stake in future, thus giving it the flexibility to counter any move on VW by hedge funds or private equity houses.
Porsche, maker of the famed 911 sports car, said on Monday it had exercised an option to acquire an additional 3.6 per cent VW stake and expected to get the shares today, pushing it beyond the threshold that triggers a mandatory bid.