Porsche increases Volkswagen stake to 42.6%

Porsche increased its stake in Volkswagen over the weekend to 42.6 percent, on its way to become the majority share holder in Volkswagen AG by the end of the year. Earlier this month, Porsche had increased its stakes from 31 to 35 percent.

Porsche also said that it has an additional 31.5 percent in cash-settled options that will give it complete control of 74.1 percent of Volkswagen shares by 2009. The Stuttgart based company said that it will stick to increasing its stake to 50 percent by Nov. 26th.

Bernd Osterloh, head of Volkswagen’s employee council was angered at Porsche’s announcement over the weekend saying that Volkswagen requires an 80 percent stake to reach controlling stake in the company. Osterloh said that even though Porsche has always denied it, its main goal was to seek controlling stake.

20 percent of Volkswagen is currently held by Lower Saxony.

Source: Detroit News