Volkswagen boss says Group "considering" market possibilities for Porsche to go public

Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess has sparked rumours the company might make an initial public offering of Porsche AG.

The Chairman of the Board of Management avoided questions put to him at a conference while presenting the VW Group’s first-half results for 2021, only saying any steps would have to be carefully considered.

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VW Chairman Herbert Diess

According to Reuters, Diess told analysts: “We continue to review our set up. [Our] first priority is now to finance the battery ramp-up where we try to partly externally finance and we are working out the models.

”And all the other, let say, possibilities to go to market, which might be trucks, where we could dilute a little bit...or any other things, we have to consider.”

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Diess’s remarks come just says after the company announced it, as part of a group of investors, had acquired a majority share in global car rental firm Europcar. The Volkswagen-led consortium, which includes Attestor Limited and Pon Holdings B.V., tabled a tender offer totalling €2.9 billion (AU$4.66bn).

While Europcar has accepted the offer valuing the company at €0.50 (AU$0.80) per share if 68 per cent ownership was given over to the group, if it hands over as much as 90 per cent of its share capital and voting rights to the consortium, the price will go up to €0.51 (AU$0.82) – bringing the total value of the deal to €2.96bn (AU$4.76bn).

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The Group, which owns Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Bentley, Skoda, Seat and performance spin-off brand Cupra, and Bugatti, also recently revealed Porsche would be taking charge of Bugatti and overseeing the partnership between the French marque and Croatian brand Rimac which it owns a 24 per cent stake in.

In May, Volkswagen rejected an offer from a separate consortium of British-based investors to purchase Lamborghini for €7.5 billion (AU$12billion).

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The Quantum Group AG, is headed up by Piech Automotive co-founder, Rea Stark, whose colleagues include Anton Piech, son of the long-time VW and Porsche boss Ferdinand Piech, as well as former VW Group CEO, Matthias Muller.

It is understood the offer was non-binding and tabled to the VW Group covering the entire purchase of Lamborghini from its road-car operations to the racing arm of the Italian brand.

VW was understood to have been preparing to list Lamborghini and Ducati publicly towards the end of last year but decided to keep both marques as a part of its 12-brand strong family.