There may soon be a brand new Porsche in the driveway of the Qatar Investment Authority.
The Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund is reportedly close to a deal with Porsche Automobil Holding SE to buy a stake in the carmaker for as much as $3.45 billion. The sale of 25% of the company could be finalized by the end of June, unnamed sources told
Bloomberg.
The closely held German sports car maker needs the capital to fuel up after it tripled its debt load to €9 billion ($13 billion) as it tried to build a controlling stake in Volkswagen AG. Porsche now holds 50.8% of Volkswagen. The investment from Qatar also serves as a blocking minority stake, giving the company some breathing room in the ongoing merger battle with Volkswagen over how the alliance should be structured. (The Deal Pipeline subscribers can read the full story
here.)
The Volkswagen takeover has swiftly turned against Porsche. At one point Porsche reported
$9 billion in windfall profits on the shares and options it held on Volkswagen's stock. But now it may be forced to either buy the shares at an inflated price or write off the cost of the options while weathering a steep decline in VW shares as banks unwind the positions. -
George White See story from BloombergSee story from The Deal Pipeline (subscription required)
See story about Porsche profits from Dealscape
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