Porsche shares climb following €75bn IPO
Posche’s stocks made a strong start on Thursday, climbing as high as 5 per cent following the luxury car maker’s €75bn (£67bn) Frankfurt IPO.
Shares increased from an issue price of €82.50 to €86.78 by mid-morning before closing at €82.74.
Chief executive Oliver Blume said the company was “very positive about the first price.”
“Of course we had a gut feeling – the feedback we got from investors was very positive,” he told Reuters on Thursday.
Blume said there was currently no timeframe to reevaluate his dual role, as he took over Herbert Diess as chief executive of parent company Volkswagen on 1 September.
Shares in Volkswagen were down more than 5 per cent, as investors dumped their holdings to grab a slice of the Porsche pie.
The parent company reaped €19.5bn from the IPO, after it listed a 12.5 per cent stake that will go towards its €52bn electrification strategy.
“We are well set-up financially and have strong cash flows to fund our electromobility strategy ourselves,” Volkswagen’s chief financial and operating officer Arno Antlitz told the news agency.
Around half of the proceedings are expected to be given back to shareholders at the end of the year in the form of a special dividend.
The listing – the second-biggest in German history since the 1996 debut of telecom company Deutsche Telekom – defied a stock market plagued by soaring energy and inflation prices.
But according to Klaus Schinkel, Edison Group’s managing director and head of Germany, the listing will not pave the way “for a new wave of IPOs.”
“The successful IPO of Porsche AG is undoubtedly a major milestone for the German and European equity capital market,” he said.
“While it is a positive sign that despite the current political and economic turmoil companies can go public, the Porsche IPO is a very special case due to its sheer size, strong brand, and support from strategic shareholders.”