Porsche and Volkswagen Saga Continues

Washington DC June 5, 2007; The AIADA newsletter reported that German sports car maker Porsche's mandatory takeover offer for Volkswagen garnered only a handful of shares, Porsche said today.

According to Reuters, Porsche's lowball bid got only 0.06 percent of Volkswagen's capital, leaving Porsche with a voting stake of 30.97 percent. The bid of $48.4 billion, the lowest allowable under German law, was triggered when Porsche raised its Volkswagen holding in March to 30.9 percent, breaching a 30 percent legal threshold that forces a takeover bid.

Porsche is now free to add to its stake in Volkswagen without having to make an offer to all shareholders. "The result was as expected because the market price was higher than the offer," Porsche's chief executive officer, Wendelin Wiedeking, said in a statement. "With the increase in the holding above 30 percent, we have already attained our desired goal of deepening our traditionally close relationship with Volkswagen."