Porsche turned down yesterday an offer from its bigger rival Volkswagen (VW) to help the cash-strapped sports carmaker out of its financial difficulties.
“It is not a practicable way for us to sell 49.9 percent of Porsche AG to VW,” a spokesman for Porsche told German media.
Porsche said it could not accept the VW offer because it would mean Porsche would then have to repay immediately a 10.75 billion euro (US$15 billion) credit it had previously agreed with a bank consortium, the spokesman said.
Volkswagen had publicly denied on Sunday it had set Porsche an ultimatum for agreeing on the merger deal, after Porsche bosses had accused their rival of “extortion.”
Tensions surfaced after a weekend report on the website of Der Spiegel magazine claimed that Volkswagen had set Porsche a deadline of today to agree to a merger plan, or otherwise pay back a 700 million euro loan.
Porsche chairman Wolfgang Porsche and his deputy on the Stuttgart-based company’s supervisory board, Uwe Huck, then released a statement in which they vowed not to “accept extortion.”
“Ultimatums do not belong in the 21st century,” the Porsche bosses said. “We hope very much in the interest of the common goals that its authors regain their calm and will pursue their proposals in internal talks and not via headlines.”
But Volkswagen denied yesterday that it had made such a demand.
“There is no ultimatum,” a spokesman for the Wolfsburg-based company said.
Der Spiegel said the plan put to Porsche would see Volkswagen take a 49.9 percent stake in the luxury carmaker before the Qatar Investment Authority acquired Porsche’s Volkswagen shares.
The combined entity formed as a result of these steps would be 40 percent owned by the Porsche and Piech families, with the Qataris taking 15 percent and another sovereign wealth fund picking up 5 percent.
Some 20 percent would be held by the state of Lower Saxony, a key investor in Volkswagen.
Porsche could yet seek to avoid the embrace of Volkswagen by going it alone with the Qataris.
The row is the latest twist in a saga that has seen Porsche, once Volkswagen’s predator and now its majority shareholder with a 51 percent stake, lose its advantage.
Porsche made its first move on Volkswagen in 2005, when it bought a 20 percent stake.
It continued to snap up options on more shares, until the size of its holding became clear and many hedge funds that had been short-selling Volkswagen — lending out shares before buying them back — scrambled to close their positions.
This stampede of panic-buying sent Volkswagen’s shares sky-high and gave Porsche a 6.8 billion euro windfall from the sale of options.
However, the cost of acquiring the extra shares in Volkswagen contributed to Porsche’s 9 billion euro debt pile.
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
CAUTION URGED: Xiaohongshu and Douyin — the Chinese version of TikTok — are tools the Chinese government uses for its ‘united front’ propaganda, the MAC said Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) yesterday urged people who use Chinese social media platforms to be cautious of being influenced by Beijing’s “united front” propaganda and undermining Taiwan’s sovereignty. Chiu made the remarks in response to queries about Chinese academic Zhang Weiwei (張維為) saying that as young Taiwanese are fond of interacting on Chinese app Xiaohongshu (小紅書, known as RedNote in English), “after unification with China, it would be easier to govern Taiwan than Hong Kong.” Zhang is professor of international relations at Shanghai’s Fudan University and director of its China Institute. When giving a speech at China’s Wuhan
ENHANCE DETERRENCE: Taiwan has to display ‘fierce resolve’ to defend itself for China to understand that the costs of war outweigh potential gains, Koo said Taiwan’s armed forces must reach a high level of combat readiness by 2027 to effectively deter a potential Chinese invasion, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said in an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) published yesterday. His comments came three days after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the US Senate that deterring a Chinese attack on Taiwan requires making a conflict “cost more than what it’s worth.” Rubio made the remarks in response to a question about US policy on Taiwan’s defense from Republican Senator John Cornyn, who said that Chinese
The zero emissions ship Porrima P111 was launched yesterday in Kaohsiung, showcasing the nation’s advancement in green technology, city Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said. The nation last year acquired the Swiss-owned vessel, formerly known as Turanor PlanetSolar, in a bid to boost Taiwan’s technology sector, as well as ecotourism in Palau, Chen said at the ship’s launch ceremony at Singda Harbor. Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr and Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) also attended the event. The original vessel was the first solar-powered ship to circumnavigate the globe in a voyage from 2010 to 2012. Taiwan-based Porrima Inc (保利馬) installed upgrades with
RSS