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Volkswagen defied volatile markets to list its sports car brand on the German stock exchange, with an initial valuation of around 75 billion euros. Porsche’s IPO comes at a time when European share prices are facing their worst year since 2009.
It was 26 years before Germany saw a public offering of such magnitude: the luxury car manufacturer Porsche went public and reached a market capitalization that almost equals the 80,000 million euros of its parent company Volkswagen and that exceeds to that of its competitor Ferrari.
On its first day on the stock market, Porsche saw its shares rise more than 3%, in a day of collapse for world stock markets, including the Frankfurt Stock Exchange itself.
This debut is not only the most valuable on the German stock market, after the one made by Deutsche Telekom in 1996. It is also one of the largest in Europe and came amid a stock market turbulence marked by the war in Ukraine, the high inflation and central bank rate hikes.
Porsche AG Chief Executive Oliver Blume, whose dual role as Volkswagen’s new head has drawn criticism from some investors, hailed the listing as a “historic moment” as he hugged colleagues and rang the bell on a packed stock exchange floor. Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Porsche’s share price had been set at 82.50 euros and in the first minutes of the negotiations it rose to 84 euros, to close around 85 dollars.
Wolfsburg-based Volkswagen will remain Porsche’s majority shareholder and the companies’ industrial cooperation will continue. However, the sale is intended to give Porsche more autonomy.
With Reuters and AP
