German Press agency DPA reports that Porsche has turned down an offer from Volkswagen to help the cash-strapped sports car maker with its financial problems.
“It is not a practicable way for us to sell 49.9 per cent of Porsche AG to VW,” a spokesman for Porsche told the agency.
German press reports say Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking and Chairman Wolfgang Porsche have been pressed to agree that VW takes a 49 percent stake in Porsche’s sports car business for 3 billion to 4 billion euros.
Porsche owns 51 percent of Volkswagen and has stock options for a further 25 percent. The company amassed 9 billion euros ($12.7 billion) debt trying to swallow VW before the financial crisis threw it off course.
Der Spiegel magazine reported on Saturday that VW had given Porsche a deadline until the end of Monday to accept its layout for a merger of the two carmakers.
The magazine said VW would ask Porsche to pay back a 700 million euro ($983.8 million) loan in September unless Porsche agreed to VW’s demand.
According to VW’s proposal, the Emirate of Qatar would buy Porsche’s stock options in VW, which would subsequently integrate the Porsche sports car business into its operations.
Der Spiegel reported that under the proposal the merged carmaker would eventually be 40 percent owned by the Porsche and Piech families, 20 percent by Lower Saxony, 15 percent by Qatar, and another sovereign wealth fund would hold 5 percent.
Volkswagen denied on Sunday that it had presented Porsche with a deadline but did not comment further.
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