FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Volkswagen late on Sunday unveiled the pricing for the planned initial public offering of Porsche AG, giving the luxury sportscar division a valuation of up to 75 billion euros ($74.97 billion).
Here are key facts about the structure of the planned landmark listing:
SHARE CAPITAL
– Porsche’s share capital is being split in two, with 455.5 million ordinary shares and the same number of preferred shares, totalling 911 million shares overall, a play on the company’s most iconic model.
– Ordinary shares carry voting rights, which matter when it comes to the question of who controls the company.
– Shares in Porsche AG are expected to start trading on Frankfurt’s stock exchange on Sept. 29.
WHAT’S BEING SOLD BY VOLKSWAGEN?
– As part of the deal, Volkswagen plans to sell 25% plus one ordinary share in Porsche AG to Porsche SE, the holding firm controlled by the Piech and Porsche families, effectively giving them a blocking minority in the namesake brand.
– Volkswagen also plans to sell 25% of preferred shares on the market. Qatar, Volkswagen’s third-largest shareholder, has already committed to buy 4.99%, leaving another 20.01%, or 10% of Porsche’s total capital, to other investors.
– The sovereign wealth funds of Norway and Abu Dhabi and mutual fund company T. Rowe Price have also committed to buying 1.8 billion euros worth of preferred shares between them.
– Porsche SE, already Volkswagen’s largest shareholder and holder of the majority of voting rights in Europe’s top carmaker, has pledged to pay a 7.5% premium for its ordinary shares over the placement price of the preferred shares.
HOW MUCH MONEY WILL VOLKSWAGEN GET?
– Volkswagen’s proceeds from the sale of ordinary and preferred shares will be between 18.1 billion and 19.5 billion euros.
– In case of a successful IPO, Volkswagen will call an extraordinary shareholder meeting in December where it will propose to pay 49% of total proceeds, or 8.9 billion-9.6 billion euros, to its shareholders in early 2023 as a special dividend.
WHO WILL CONTROL PORSCHE AG?
– Volkswagen AG and Porsche SE will jointly own all of Porsche AG’s ordinary shares in a 75% minus one share-25% plus one share split.
– Overall, 75% minus one ordinary share of Porsche AG’s total share capital will be owned by Volkswagen AG after the IPO.
– Porsche SE will own 12.5% plus one ordinary share of Porsche AG’s total capital while Qatar will own 2.5%.
– The remaining 10% will be free-float.
($1 = 1.0004 euros)
(Compiled by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Christina Fincher and Jan Harvey)
