justinsrx7

It could be a very small auto show this year with all of the manufacturers having some sort of trouble. How sad is that.

pongobaz

Just talked to one of the western p-car dealers this morning and he confirmed that and also said that usually the dealers pay for and staff the shows here. It's a bit costly for them when sales are dramatically down. Too bad; it's always good to go hang out with your favorite brand.

justinsrx7

I was just watching Pulse24 and they did a report on Porsche pulling out of the Toronto Auto Show. I'm not sure it is really the place where potential Porsche owners go to find their cars but it is a great PR event for the rest of the population. When I go to the auto show now, I am most interested in the exotics and the concept cars. The rest of the show ain't that exciting unless I happen to be in the market for a car when February comes around.

trickydisco

Porsche sees sales falling in fiscal 2009
Reuters, Thursday December 18 2008
* Four-month revenue 2.15 bln euros, down 9.7 percent
* Unit sales 25,016, down 18.7 percent
* Shares up 5.1 percent

FRANKFURT, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Germany's Porsche Automobil Holding SE expects its car sales to decline in the fiscal year 2008/09 as the global economic crisis hurts demand around the world.
"Throughout the world, the portents of a severe breakdown in demand in the automotive industry are unmistakable," the company said on Thursday.
Revenue in the first four months of the current fiscal year fell 9.7 percent to 2.15 billion euros ($3.1 billion), while unit sales were down 18.7 percent at 25,016 vehicles.
Porsche is counting on the launch next year of its first four-door sports car, the Panamera GT, to fuel growth.
In its 2007/08 fiscal year, Porsche's earnings before tax rose by nearly half to 8.57 billion euros, surpassing revenue growth thanks to higher-than-expected gains from Volkswagen AG stock hedges, it said last month.
Porsche shares rose 5.1 percent to 50.83 euros by 1427 GMT while the DJ Stoxx car sector index was up 2.7 percent.
Porsche has raised its overall stake in VW's class of voting stock to 42.6 percent and has said it plans to increase this to 75 percent sometime next year, if conditions are favourable. (Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by David Holmes)

cleanme

Porsche also dropped out of the ALMS

trickydisco

Porsche Predicts ‘Clear’ Decline in Full-Year Sales

By Frances Robinson

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Porsche SE, maker of the 911 sports car, reiterated a forecast of a “clear” decline in full-year sales after four-month deliveries dropped 19 percent amid the global recession.

Porsche sold 25,016 cars and sport-utility vehicles in the four months through November, while revenue declined 9.7 percent to 2.15 billion euros ($3.07 billion), the Stuttgart, Germany- based company said in a statement today. Its factory in Zuffenhausen will suspend production for eight days between now and the end of January, Porsche said, a day longer than an earlier announced cutback.

“Above all, it is virtually impossible to make reliable forecasts regarding developments in the U.S., Porsche’s biggest single market,” the carmaker said, adding that four-month deliveries in the country had fallen 18 percent.

The U.S. economy went into recession in December 2007, while gross domestic product in Germany, the largest economy in Europe, may shrink by almost 2 percent next year, according to two research institutes in the country. Sales luxury-industry sales will decline 4 percent in 2009 as revenue growth from emerging markets slows, Melanie Flouquet, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co., estimated Dec. 16.

Porsche rose 1.71 euros, or 3.5 percent, to 50.09 euros in Frankfurt trading. That pared the stock’s decline this year to 63 percent, valuing the automaker at 8.78 billion euros.

Volkswagen Stake

The company said on Nov. 26 that it may delay taking control of Volkswagen AG, Europe’s biggest carmaker, after estimating a 15 percent decline in four-month revenue and an 18 percent drop in vehicle sales that would lead sales to fall in the year through July 2009.

Porsche said today that, as of Nov. 30, it held 42.6 percent of Volkswagen’s stock and controlled another 28.1 percent through options. Porsche still aims to achieve a 75 percent stake in 2009 after acquiring a majority “as soon as possible.”

Volkswagen shares in Frankfurt rose 2.17 euros, or 0.7 percent, to 310.23 euros.

To contact the reporter on this story: Frances Robinson in Frankfurt at frobinson6@bloomberg.net.

trickydisco

Porsche Labor: Agreement With Volkswagen's Unions In Sight
Tuesday December 16th, 2008 / 19h50

FRANKFURT -(Dow Jones)- Porsche Automobil Holding SE's (PAH3.XE) labor representatives said Tuesday that an agreement with their counterparts at Volkswagen AG (VOW.XE) over future influence at a combined company is in sight.
A fierce dispute between Porsche and Volkswagen's powerful labor unions has so far been one of the last potential roadblocks for Porsche's planned takeover of Europe's largest auto maker by sales.
Porsche and Volkswagen's labor representatives now want to reach an agreement instead of proceeding further with a continuing lawsuit, but the statement from Porsche's labor representatives didn't provide further details about the talks or a possible time frame for a final decision.
In a surprise move on Monday, Volkswagen's top labor representative, Bernd Osterloh, was named chairman of Porsche Holding's works council. Porsche's top labor representative, Uwe Hueck, was named deputy chairman of the holding company's works council and remains top labor representative of Porsche AG.
Sportscar maker Porsche AG formed the holding company as an umbrella organization to integrate Volkswagen after the takeover.
Over the past months, VW's Osterloh repeatedly attacked Porsche Chief Executive Wendelin Wiedeking for allegedly not granting Volkswagen's workers the rights to which they would be entitled in a merged company under German labor law.
In October, Porsche announced that it plans to boost its stake in Volkswagen to 75%. At that time, Porsche said it holds 42.6% of the ordinary shares and has cash-settled options for an additional 31.5%.
However, Porsche admitted last month that the financial crisis has made it increasingly unlikely that it will raise its stake in Volkswagen above 50% before the end of 2008.
Company Web site: www.porsche.com
-By Christoph Rauwald, Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69 29 725 512; christoph.rauwald@dowjones.com

JDSStudios

Thanks for the info.

trickydisco

Volkswagen shares gain as Porsche gets majority

By Christiaan Hetzner
FRANKFURT, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Shares in Volkswagen traded higher on Tuesday, pacing European auto stocks, following news late on Monday that Porsche SE raised its voting stake in the world's third-largest carmaker to a majority.
The much anticipated move triggers a mandatory takeover bid for Swedish truck maker Scania since ownership will indirectly pass to Porsche now that the sportscar maker has lifted its VW holding to 50.8 percent.
Ordinary shares in VW gained over 6 percent to trade above 270 euros by 0955 GMT, helping to drive the European autos subindex 3.2 percent higher. German blue chips gained just 0.7 percent.
Porsche shares were up 1.1 percent at 54.49 euros.
A Porsche spokesman confirmed late on Monday that the company still planned to increase its stake in VW to 75 percent at some point this year, given a favourable market environment.
"I think Porsche will stick with its 50 percent this year, since it would just be burning money to raise its voting stake to 75 percent at current prices," said NordLB's Frank Schwope.
The analyst did not expect a clause in both the Volkswagen Law or the VW statutes to be abolished before the end of 2010, which requires Porsche muster at least 80 percent support before gaining full control over management and cash flows via a so-called Domination and Profit Transfer Agreement.
Until then, the state of Lower Saxony can veto Porsche's plans with its 20 percent blocking minority that has protected government influence at Europe's largest carmaker for decades.
"The call for state involvement has become popular ever since the nationalisation of the banks, so the wind has turned against Porsche," NordLB analyst Schwope added.
Porsche, which last disclosed a 42.6 percent voting stake late in October, said a month later that a high VW share price could force it to postpone plans to acquire majority control by the end of last year, but only just.
"It can happen now or it could also happen in January...whether it is then plus or minus four weeks, I cannot say," Porsche finance chief Holger Haerter told Reuters late in November.
COULD SELL SCANIA SHARES TO VW
Porsche is now required by Swedish law to make a mandatory takeover offer but said it had no strategic interest in Scania and would only bid the legal minimum, since it was not interested in acquiring Scania shares.
Regulators are expected to name the bid price to Porsche in the coming days, and after a period of at most five weeks, shareholders in Scania should receive the published bid.
"The only real news was that they could not get around making an offer for Scania. Now that the bid is here, the speculation is over and the air will escape from the Scania shares," said Sal. Oppenheim analyst Christian Breitsprecher, who expects profit taking in the Swedish truckmaker.
Stockholm's stock exchange is closed on Tuesday for a holiday, but Scania B shares were trading down in Frankfurt by half a percent.
Porsche has already been forced to bid for the less than 1 percent of Audi shares in freefloat, but had agreed to sell any tendered stock back to Audi parent Volkswagen.
A source at Porsche said such a construct could be a possible option for Scania as well.
The Swedish truckmaker is currently controlled by Volkswagen with 68.6 percent of the votes, as well as MAN AG, which bought call options just before Christmas that give it access to more than 20 percent of Scania votes. (Editing by David Cowell)

trickydisco

Porsche Takeover of VW Done But For The Law
Posted by: David Kiley on January 06



Porsche AG took step closer to controlling the much larger Volkswagen AG by upping its share holdings to 50.8% in late Monday trading.

But actual formal control of management still eludes the company. Porsche plans to raise its stake in VW to more than 75% this year, with which it expects to gain total control over the Volkswagen Group, which includes Audi, Bentley, Seat, Skoda and Lamborghini. Having more than 75% of shares would allow it to seal a so-called “domination contract” giving it full financial control.

In Germany, a minority investor that owns 25% of a company’s shares can block strategic decisions of the company. But in the case of VW, the level is set at 20% by special law that dates back to the 1940s when the state of Lower Saxony, where VW is based, was granted a 20% interest. Porsche has challenged the so-called VW law and has received support from the European Commission. But the German government hasn’t yet revised the law to Porsche’s benefit.

Porsche has been on a quest to takeover VW for more than two years. And so far it has paid off well. In Porsche’s last annual reporting year, it booked only about one-billion euros in operating profit. But it reported 6.39 billion euros in net income, with the boost coming primarily from the increased value of its VW investment.

As Porsche advances its strategy, it is truly the case of the goldfish swallowing the whale. Porsche turns out roughly 100,000 expensive sportscars and sport utility vehicles a year, while Volkswagen churns out about five million vehicles annually.

Behind the combination of the companies is Ferdinand Piech, the grandson of Porsche AG founder Ferdinand Porsche, who was also famous for the design of the Volkswagen Beetle. The Piech and Porsche families control the voting stock of Porsche, though no family member has been allowed to run the company in the last four decades. Instead, Piech rose through the ranks at VW, first running Audi AG and then VW AG. Today, he is chairman of the supervisory board of VW AG, a role he has been able to keep because German securities laws do not recognize his dual role as a conflict of interest the way the laws might in the U.S.

On Tuesday, the long drawn out combination of the two companies may have created a suicide. Stock traders have tried to maximize their own profits by shadowing Porsche’s moves. Adolf Merckle, one of Germany’s wealthiest businessmen, threw himself in front a train this week, a move reported in the German press to have been prompted by hundreds of millions of euros of losses in risky VW share trading and the rapid crumbling of his pharmaceuticals empire. The 74 year old was head of a conglomerate, which included the Ratiopharm drugs group and HeidelbergCement.
Meantime, Volkswagens ambitious plans to expand its business three fold in the U.S. have been derailed by the Recession and free-falling industry sales. Still, VW managed to report some good news when 2008 sales were tallied January 5. Volkswagen, helped by the Wolfsburg, Germany-based carmaker’s luxury Audi brand, increased its share of U.S. car sales to 2.8 percent in December from 2.1 percent a year earlier. Audi’s 9.3 percent dip and the VW brand’s 14 percent drop were smaller drops than most of its competitors. VW brand sales slipped 3.2 percent for the year, compared with a market-wide drop of 18 percent.

VW in the last year has added a new Jetta model, as well as a new diesel version of that car, as well as the Touran minivan, Tiguan SUV and CC sports sedan (pictured above). “There is a sense of buzz and energy coming back into the VW brand, and it has benefited from the comeback of passenger car sales,” says independent marketing consultant Dennis Keene.

Indeed, passenger cars outsold SUVs in 2008 for the first time since 2000.

To buttress its expansion plans, Volkswagen is building a $1 billion factory in Tennessee, its first in the U.S. since 1988, in a bid to end five years of losses in the country and triple sales to 1 million by 2018.

VW needs U.S. production so it can avoid losing so much money when it converts its costs in euros and other currencies to a weakened dollar. Few people believe the company can hit its ambitious sales goal. But it may be fun to watch it try.

trickydisco

Porsche Offers Minimum Price in Required Scania Bid

By Tom Lavell and Andreas Cremer

Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Porsche SE offered the minimum price to buy Swedish truckmaker Scania AB in a mandatory takeover bid triggered when the German maker of the 911 sports car gained a majority stake in Volkswagen AG.

Porsche doesn’t intend to take control of the commercial- vehicle manufacturer, the Stuttgart-based carmaker said today in a statement. The company offered to pay 67.1 kronor a share for Scania’s B-Class stock and 68.52 kronor for each A-Class share because of a legal requirement to submit a bid.

Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, has been the controlling investor in Soedertaelje-based Scania since mid-2008, with 68.6 percent of the voting rights. Porsche acquired 50.8 percent of Volkswagen on Jan. 5, forcing it under Swedish market rules to bid for all of Scania. Volkswagen is also the largest investor in Munich-based truckmaker MAN AG with a 29.9 percent stake following a takeover battle for Scania in 2006.

“This is purely procedural,” said Albrecht Denninghoff, a Frankfurt-based analyst at BHF-Bank AG. “Porsche has already made clear it has no strategic interest in Scania. The two questions remaining are: How many shares will Porsche get and how soon will they pass them on to VW or MAN?”

Scania fell 0.25 krona, or 0.4 percent, to 68.75 euros in Stockholm trading, valuing the company at 55.4 billion kronor. Porsche dropped 56 cents, or 1.2 percent, to 46.19 euros in Frankfurt, valuing the Stuttgart, Germany-based carmaker at 8.2 billion euros.

Porsche said on Jan. 7 that it has no strategic interest in Scania and would offer the lowest price allowable. The minimum bid reflects the volume-weighted average price in the 20 days before Porsche gained control of Scania, according to Swedish regulations. Scania’s Class-B shares cost an average 67.09 kronor in the period ended Jan. 5, according to exchange data.

To contact the reporters on this story: Tom Lavell in Frankfurt at tlavell@bloomberg.net; Andreas Cremer in Berlin at acremer@bloomberg.net.

Mark Lue

Thanks for the info Barrington.

From my layman's prospective.... is wheather Porsche's aggressive stagetiges are wise in these economic times. Could they over extend themselves and wind up vunerable to be taken over if things don't go their way... that would suck.

trickydisco

Porsche Faces Frankfurt Investigation Over VW Trading

By Karin Matussek


Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Frankfurt prosecutors are investigating claims that “responsible people” at Porsche SE may have manipulated the trading of Volkswagen AG shares.

The Frankfurt prosecutors opened the probe following a complaint by a Berlin lawyer, prosecutors’ spokeswoman Doris Moeller-Scheu said in an interview today. She didn’t identify the lawyer and added that her office will now await findings of an investigation started last year by Germany’s financial regulator BaFin.

“We have to open a file if we get such a complaint, but we will take further action only if BaFin’s findings indicate any wrongdoing may have taken place,” Moeller-Scheu said. No suspects have been named, she added.

Volkswagen, Europe’s largest carmaker, rose almost fourfold in Frankfurt trading at the end of October after Stuttgart-based Porsche announced that it had acquired options to increase its stake to 74.1 percent.

The announcement spurred short-sellers to buy from a shrinking pool of stock to close their positions. Short-selling occurs when investors borrow shares and then sell them on the hope that the price will fall.

German prosecutors’ offices received several complaints at the end of last year. Prosecutors in Stuttgart, have referred their case to their Frankfurt colleagues, their spokeswoman Bettina Vetter said earlier this week.

Porsche spokesman Frank Gaube didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Karin Matussek in Berlin at kmatussek@bloomberg.net

trickydisco

Porsche Half-Year Sales Tumble as Crisis Takes Hold


By Andreas Cremer


Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Porsche SE, maker of the 911 sports car, said first-half sales fell 14 percent as the global credit freeze threatens the company with its first full-year revenue decline since 1993.

Sales in the six months through tomorrow have dropped to “about 3 billion euros” ($3.9 billion), Chief Executive Officer Wendelin Wiedeking said today at the annual shareholders’ meeting. Deliveries as of mid-January declined 27 percent from a year earlier to 34,000 cars and sport-utility vehicles.

More than 232,000 bankers and brokers have lost their jobs in the U.S., the biggest market for Porsche’s models, as the crisis that started in the housing industry spread across the economy. Europe’s car market shrank 7.8 percent in 2008, propelled by an 18 percent drop in December. London-based market research company Synovate said on Jan. 21 that in an 18-country survey, luxury spending fell the most in the U.S. and U.K.

“The economy will shrink, companies will go bankrupt and many people will lose their jobs,” Wiedeking said in a speech delivered at the meeting in Stuttgart, Germany. “We won’t clog up markets with cars that find no buyers.” At the same time, the company has no plans to shorten workweeks or stage mass firings while it undertakes a program to reduce spending by “clearly more” than 100 million euros.

Porsche rose as much as 2.97 euros, or 6.6 percent, to 47.90 euros and was up 1.6 percent as of 3.12 p.m. in Frankfurt trading. The stock has fallen 17 percent this year, valuing the company at 8 billion euros.

Suspending Production

The carmaker said it will suspend manufacturing for 19 days between now and August. Stuttgart-based Porsche already halted assembly lines at its main Zuffenhausen, Germany, plant for eight days this month and extended employees’ Christmas vacation by three days.

Even so, Porsche will unveil its new Panamera four-door sports sedan at the Shanghai Motor Show in April, Wiedeking said, adding that the company has spent 150 million euros at its Leipzig, Germany, plant to add the model’s production lines. The company has a sales target for the Panamera, scheduled to go on sale in the next fiscal year, of 20,000 cars annually.

Six-month earnings may be “higher” than year-earlier results of 1.7 billion euros because of gains from Porsche’s holding in Volkswagen AG, which was raised to a majority stake early in January, while profit from car manufacturing is falling as markets slump, Wiedeking said, without giving details. Porsche is scheduled to publish fiscal first-half earnings in March.

75% Volkswagen-Stake Goal

Porsche remains committed to taking 75 percent ownership of Volkswagen within a “foreseeable” period this year, Wiedeking said. Even so, Porsche won’t rush into buying VW shares, given “highly critical” economic circumstances.

“We have said all along that we won’t do anything unreasonable,” Wiedeking said, adding the company will gauge its next steps “very carefully.”

Wolfsburg, Germany-based Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, is valued on Porsche’s books at 117 euros a share and the company could “live with” a price of 200 euros, Porsche Chief Financial Officer Holger Haerter said on Nov. 26.

Volkswagen fell as much as 6.50 euros, or 2.6 percent, to 248.50 euros today and was down 0.6 percent at 253.50 euros in Frankfurt trading.

Building a Stake

Porsche, which has been buying Volkswagen stock since 2005, disclosed its goal for the holding for the first time in an Oct. 26 announcement saying it owned a 42.6 percent stake and had secured options for another 31.5 percent. Short-sellers, trying to cover bets that the stock would drop, sought to buy from a dwindling pool of freely traded shares, briefly giving Volkswagen the biggest market value of any company worldwide on Oct. 28.

The share-price surge is being probed by BaFin, Germany’s financial market regulator, and Frankfurt prosecutors said on Jan. 28 that they’re ready for their own investigation pending the BaFin results.

Hans Hirt, head of European corporate governance at Hermes Pensions Management Ltd., said at today’s meeting that Porsche may have violated rules on disclosure, adding that Wiedeking should have known “fully well” that the Oct. 26 statement would trigger the so-called short squeeze.

“The stock market upheaval of the last week of October caused massive economic damage,” Hirt said, adding the “chaotic development” of Germany’s benchmark DAX Index “greatly hurt” the country’s reputation for investing.

Porsche has forward contracts protecting it from shifts in the dollar against the euro until 2013, Wiedeking said. The company is also hedging against other major currencies such as the pound and yen as well as China’s yuan and Russia’s ruble.

The dollar’s strength against the euro is only a “temporary phenomenon” and the U.S. currency may decline over time, which would also help the U.S. government to spur economic growth, Wiedeking said. The dollar is trading at about $1.29 per euro today, compared with a record $1.6038 touched on July 15.

“Porsche is extremely well positioned, even if this scenario doesn’t happen and the dollar remains relatively strong,” Wiedeking said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andreas Cremer in Stuttgart, Germany, via acremer@bloomberg.net.

trickydisco

Porsche in tight timetable to refinance 10 bln euro loan

Fri Feb 6, 2009 2:31pm GMT
By Zaida Espana and Tessa Walsh

LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - German high-end car manufacturer Porsche is confident it will refinance a 10 billion euro ($12.81 billion) syndicated loan before it matures in March 2009, a spokesman told Reuters.

Porsche is discussing terms and conditions with banks and faces a steep increase in borrowing costs, particularly after drawing the loan down last February at low rates to make financial investments, banking sources said.

"We are not under pressure, we feel we're on the positive side of the market, and we're not willing to pay any price," Porsche spokesman Frank Gaube said.

The company drew down the 10 billion euro revolving credit at around 20 basis points over EURIBOR, bringing losses to many lenders with funding costs as high as 100 bps, bankers said.

"Porsche will confront ugly banks and ugly pricing when they refinance," a head of loan syndicate said.

Porsche's 10 billion euro loan is the remainder of a 35 billion euro loan that financed Porsche's purchase of an increased stake in Volkswagen AG (VW) in 2007.

The loan was arranged by mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners ABN AMRO, Barclays, Merrill Lynch and UBS and MLA and facility agent Commerzbank.

PRICING UP ON REFINANCING

Porsche faces a dramatic increase in its loan interest margin as lenders bring pricing up to record market-clearing levels, banking sources said.

"I don't think (Porsche) is under particular pressure, but in conversations we've had they recognise how the market has changed," one banker close to the deal said.

Unlike other corporates, Porsche has not been able to extend existing loans or put a 'forward start' agreement in place that lines up a new loan ahead of maturity, and is having to put a new refinancing in place.

Refinancings are a riskier proposition in today's loan market as existing facilities are repaid and replaced by a new deal. This gives syndicate members an opportunity to exit the deal or reduce commitments, further downsizing the amount of debt a company can raise.

Other European companies, such as Telefonica and Reed Elsevier have opted to keep their shrinking bank syndicates in place with extensions or forward starts.

Porsche is also in the limelight after launching a mandatory bid for truck manufacturer Scania in January after it increased its holding in Scania's main shareholder Volkswagen AG above 50 percent.

Porsche Automobil Holding offered 68.52 Swedish crowns for each Scania A share and 67.1 Swedish crowns for each B share, in an offering that expires on Feb. 10.

Scania's board recommended that shareholders reject the offer on Tuesday, but with Scania's A and B shares trading below the offer price at 68 Swedish crowns and 67 Swedish crowns in Friday morning trading, some shareholders could be reconsidering their options, bankers said.

Financing for this transaction is being provided by Volkswagen, which has ample cash on its balance sheet to meet the price tag, sources said.