Porsche debuts with $72 billion price tag in bumper IPO

FRANKFURT, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Porsche AG made its stock market debut on Thursday, with a price tag of around 75 billion euros ($72.45 billion) after Volkswagen ( VOWG_p.DE ) priced shares at the top end of the range, despite turbulent market conditions.

The bumper deal, which is expected to generate about 1[ads1]9.5 billion euros ($19.0 billion), comes as instability in European markets has deterred other share sales by automakers, including luxury brands.

The sale values ​​Porsche AG close to the market value of parent Volkswagen, which is worth around 84 billion euros, and puts it ahead of rivals such as Ferrari ( RACE.MI ).

Boker closed Wednesday on what is one of Europe’s biggest IPOs and Germany’s second biggest since Deutsche Telekom’s ( DTEGn.DE ) debut in 1996, at the top of the 76.50-82.50 euro range it announced earlier this month.

The shares opened at €84.00 apiece and were trading at €82.88 by 0733 GMT.

Shares in Porsche SE (PSHG_p.DE) fell 5.7% in early Frankfurt trading. Shares in Volkswagen fell 4.9% in early Frankfurt trading.

Companies in continental Europe have raised the smallest amount this year since the global financial crisis in 2009 at $44 billion, of which only $4.5 billion came from IPOs, based on Refinitiv data.

Volkswagen has said that market volatility was precisely why fund managers with money to invest badly needed a stable and attractive stock like Porsche AG.

“Porsche was and is the pearl of the Volkswagen group,” said Chris-Oliver Schickentanz, chief investment officer at fund manager Capitell.

“The IPO has now made it very, very transparent what value the market adds to Porsche. Of course it also has a positive effect on Volkswagen shareholders.”

Faced with tens of billions in costs for a radical shift toward electric mobility and software, Volkswagen executives had long considered taking Porsche public, a move executives hoped would both raise much-needed funds and lift Volkswagen’s own value.

The Porsche and Piech families, in turn, will consolidate their control of the automaker with 25%, plus one ordinary share – with voting rights – in Porsche AG, giving them a blocking minority in the namesake brand.

Up to 113,875,000 non-voting preference shares will be sold to investors during the initial public offering.

($1 = 1.0352 euros)

Reporting by Victoria Waldersee and Emma-Victoria Farr; writing by Victoria Waldersee and Matthias Williams; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Richard Pullin and Jane Merriman

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