Porsche Shares Rally After 75 Billion Euros Listing In German Market

(RTTNews) - Porsche AG shares had a up and down start on Thursday, after Volkswagen bet turbulent markets to list the sports car brand at a valuation of 75 billion euros or $72 billion in what is seen as Germany's second-biggest market debut.

The shares closed at 82.50 euros or $80.74, thus returning to their issue price from the session high of 86.76 euros. The company had priced the sports car at the top end of the indicated range, and raised 19.5 billion euros via the listing to fund the group's electrification drive. Some of the important investors include Qatar Investment Authority, T. Rowe Price, Norway's sovereign wealth fund and Abu Dhabi.

Some 25% plus one ordinary share went to the Porsche and Piech families via Porsche SE, Volkswagen's largest shareholder which now has a blocking minority on the sportscar brand. The shares peaked at 86.76 in late morning.

The share performance puts Porsche AG's valuation at about 75.43 billion euros, only slightly below former parent Volkswagen, which is worth around 80.1 billion euros, and ahead of rivals such as Ferrari. This is Germany's biggest listing since Deutsche Telekom in the year 1996.

Volkswagen CEO Arno Antlitz told Reuters that the listing had done its part in helping to fund the carmaker's electrification drive. Of the 19.5 billion euros raised from the IPO, around 9.6 billion will go to Volkswagen, just under a fifth of the 52-billion euro budget needed for electrification plans, with the rest distributed among shareholders as a special dividend.

"We are well set-up financially have strong cash flows to fund our electromobility strategy ourselves," the chief financial officer said.

Volkswagen priced Porsche AG shares at the top of the range despite broadly weaker stock markets after red-hot German inflation data and general market turmoil stirred by rising interest rates.

Volkswagen has said the market's volatility was precisely why fund managers were sorely in need of a stable and profitable business like Porsche AG in which to invest. A banker involved in the transaction described the Porsche listing as a one-off, predicting the market would freeze over again very soon.

However, Porsche was trading at a multiple of around 7.2 times its earnings - far below Ferrari's multiple of 40. Companies in the region have raised $44 billion from equity capital markets deals up to Sept. 27, as data shows, with only $4.5 billion from initial public offerings.

Porsche AG Chief Executive Blume, whose dual role as the new head of Volkswagen has drawn criticism from some investors, hailed the listing as an "historic moment" and dismissed the idea that he would at some point give up one of the two positions.

Up to 113,875,000 Porsche AG preferred shares, carrying no voting rights, were sold in the initial public offering.

Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan worked as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners on the deal, while Mediobanca acted as financial adviser to Porsche.