The VW spinout is really the talk of Europe. To have the guts to IPO right now.
Several folks I have spoken with think this if pulled off could stabilize the markets
(In Europe anyway)
Porsche accounted for €16bn in sales during those first six months of the year, shipping 149,000 vehicles. A drop of 3,000 was attributed to the effects of the Russian invasion. These are all broadly healthy figures, but the real reason behind the float plans is simple: VW needs cash and lots of it.
David Bailey, professor of business economics at the University of Birmingham and an automotive industry expert, summarised the rationale behind the move: “VW wants to float Porsche to raise a heap of cash to plough into building EVs and battery plants.” VW’s Blume was a little more coy, saying this week: “There’s a lot of capital in the market and we think that the Porsche IPO could be an icebreaker… and show what’s possible”.
Either way, the message is clear. VW wants money but doesn’t want to give up any control of one of its crown jewels. Just 12.5pc of the company is to be sold, with no voting rights.
“Porsche is the most profitable part of VW and its Taycan model is seen as a serious Tesla-challenger,” adds Birmingham’s Prof Bailey. “Hence the attractiveness to VW selling it off to raise cash when big investment is needed in new tech.”
Beyond that, however, the professor says it is “difficult to see the logic in the move or in its timing”. He points to the VW governance and ownership structure, which sees Dr Ferdinand Porsche, great-grandson of the eponymous company’s founder, serving on its supervisory board. Carving off a chunk of non-voting shares is a complicated way of raising cash while trying to keep the existing power structures in charge.
porsche - Damn that's perty!
Meanwhile, market competition is speeding ahead. In the race to build more electric vehicles VW has been left standing by rivals such as Elon Musk’s Tesla and China’s BYD.
Earlier this year Tesla, which had for years been the West’s pre-eminent EV maker, was
overtaken by Warren Buffett-backed BYD.
China is one of the world’s largest automotive markets: gaining domestic expertise and scale
positions BYD well to compete against the big legacy carmakers of old Europe, and VW’s board is evidently feeling the pressure. BYD shipped 174,000 electric vehicles in the first half of the year, coming up fast on VW’s 217,000 sales.
Factory expansions in Emden, America’s Chattanooga and Hanover to gear up for increased electric vehicle production are all capital-intensive operations, not helped by the global chip shortage’s negative impact on the wider automotive sector’s ability to achieve timely fulfilment of orders.
Nonetheless, institutional investors including T Rowe Price Group and the Qatar Investment Authority are looking at the float with interest. QIA – which already has a seat on the VW board – plans to buy an almost 5pc stake in Porsche. Demand reportedly is higher than the shares on offer.