Porsche SE Considers Strategic Investments In Automotive Assets

Porsche Automobil Holding SE (PAH3.XE) wants to use proceeds from the planned sale of its sportscar division to Volkswagen AG (VOW.XE) for strategic investments in automotive assets and for paying back its remaining liabilities to banks.

"The proceeds should mainly be used for further investments focusing on the automotive value chain," Porsche said Thursday in the invitation to its shareholder meeting published on the corporate website.

Porsche said it will adjust its corporate statutes accordingly at the meeting, which is scheduled on June 25.

A spokesman for Porsche said this was a precautionary move to keep all strategic options open for the time after the integration of Porsche's sportscar operation into Volkswagen has been completed. There are no concrete plans for acquisitions, he said.

Porsche already sold a 49.9% stake in its sportscar unit to Volkswagen as part of a complex deal in 2009 to forge a combined company after its attempt to take over its much-larger peer backfired amid ballooning debt.

At the time, Porsche and Volkswagen mutually granted each other options to transfer the remaining 50.1% stake to VW if the initial plan for a merger including Porsche's holding firm doesn't work out. This initial plan had to be abandoned last year due to legal obstacles.

The sale of the remaining 50.1% stake in Porsche's sportscar unit is expected to be worth roughly EUR4 billion, substantially more than Porsche Holding's financial liabilities of EUR1.5 billion at the end of the first quarter.

-By Christoph Rauwald, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]