Volkswagen aims to integrate sports-car maker Porsche as soon as possible, although coordination with German tax authorities will continue until “the right time has come”, chief financial officer Hans Dieter Poetsch said.
Business weekly Wirtschaftswoche reported that holding company Porsche SE had found a way to sell the remaining 50.1% of its car making division to VW without paying an estimated EUR1.5bn (US$1.9bn) in tax.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
A merger between the two companies was agreed in 2009 after the sports carmaker racked up more than EUR10bn of debt attempting to buy VW.
However, VW abandoned the merger last September citing unquantifiable legal risks, including lawsuits by short sellers in the United States who claimed that Porsche secretly piled up VW shares and later caused investors to lose more than US$1bn.
Both have since been looking at how to fold Porsche’s automotive business into VW, which now holds 49.9%. Taxes would be payable if VW were to buy the remaining shares before August 2014.
Poetsch told the Reuters news agency that a swifter solution (than 2014) would be in the interest of tax authorities.
“Swifter solution means higher synergies at an earlier time, higher profits and thus more tax payments,” he added.
Wirtschaftswoche reported that tax authorities believed the deal was legally a restructuring and not a disposal that would require tax payments. Under the restructuring, Porsche’s holding company would receive a single voting share in VW as part of a EUR4.5bn payment for Porsche’s carmaking operations.
