VW Group targets value for Porsche of up to $75B in IPO

Volkswagen Group is taking its Porsche subsidiary public via an initial public offering, and on Sunday confirmed the offer period will start Sept. 20 and run until an expected closing date eight days later.

VW Group will price the shares at a range of 76.50 euros to 82.50 euros per share, which at the upper price limit will value Porsche at 75 billion euros (approximately $75 billion). The shares will be listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

The valuation, while small compared to Tesla, is bigger than the market capitalization of fellow German automakers such as BMW (49 billion euros) and Mercedes-Benz (61 billion euros), and comes close VW Group’s own market capitalization of 88 billion euros.

“We believe Porsche AG, with its robust business model and compelling financial performance, is ready to launch its IPO,” Lutz Meschke, Porsche’s deputy chairman and head of finance and IT, said in a statement.

Ahead of the IPO, Porsche has been divided into 911 million shares, split evenly between preferred and ordinary shares. The preferred shares have no voting rights but come with higher dividends. Up to 113,875,000 preferred shares will be offered to investors in the IPO.

Porsche SE, the holding company majority owned by the Porsche and Piëch families, and the biggest shareholder in VW Group, plans to acquire 25% plus one share of the ordinary shares at the price of the preferred shares plus a 7.5% premium, a move that will provide the holding company with a blocking minority, and as a result sway in any key decisions.

Sovereign wealth funds from Abu Dhabi, Norway, and Qatar, as well as investment firm T. Rowe Price, will acquire preferred shares worth up to 3.68 billion euros in total at the upper price limit, VW Group said.

Should the IPO prove successful, VW Group may follow with an IPO of recently established battery company PowerCo. Speaking at an investor presentation in July, Arno Antlitz, VW Group’s chief financial officer, said the battery company has been set up in a way to make a listing next year or in 2024 possible. PowerCo is responsible for VW Group’s global battery activities. The company has announced plans for six battery plants in Europe and is considering establishing plants in North America as well.