Porsche shares gain 5% in Frankfurt stock market debut
Employees of German car manufacturer Porsche are seen here at the Porsche factory in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen
By Matt McFarland and Anna Cooban, CNN Business
Shares of Porsche gained as much as 5% on their stock market debut in Frankfurt after Volkswagen spun out the premium sports car maker in one of Europe’s biggest listings on record.
Volkswagen priced the Porsche initial public offering (IPO) at €82.50 ($80) a share, raising approximately €9.4 billion, on Wednesday. The shares traded at around €85.50 on Thursday morning after earlier hitting €86.78.
The issue price was at the top end of Volkswagen’s original price estimate, and values the company at roughly €75 billion ($73 billion).
That make Porsche’s IPO the second-largest in Germany’s history, Reuters reported. It is also Europe’s third-largest on record, Reuters said, citing Refinitiv data.
The publicly traded company will still be majority owned by Volkswagen and the descendents of Ferdinand Porsche, the inventor of the original Beetle.
VW has pushed ahead with the Porsche IPO even with a volatile stock market and uncertain economy. Other luxury automakers, including Lamborghini and Bentley, have continued to post record sales despite economic headwinds thanks to their well-heeled clientele.
Shares in Volkswagen were down 5.6% on Thursday morning amid broader market volatility.
Nearly half the IPO proceeds will be distributed to shareholders, the company said in a statement. The rest will be used to help VW build electric vehicles.
The German automaker plans to spend more than $7 billion over the next five years to boost research and development and manufacturing in North America. Its strategy is typical of the auto industry, which is shifting to electric vehicles.
The automaker has said it wants a quarter of its sales to be electric vehicles by 2026.
It’s described previously having a backlog of electric vehicle orders in Western Europe, and plans to phase out gas-powered vehicles from its US lineup in the next decade.
Oliver Blume took over as VW’s CEO earlier this month.
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