Porsche finally hit the stock market today after months of speculation and earned itself a solid €75 billion ($72 bn) valuation. And it looks like VW’s battery operation could also be headed for an IPO.
That €75 bn figure is slightly lower than the upper estimate of €85 billion ($82 bn) some analysts had predicted, but also higher than other pessimistic predictions, and makes Porsche almost as valuable as Volkswagen Group itself, which is worth just over €80 billion ($76.8 bn). Shares in the sports car brand opened at €82.50 but climbed in the first hours after the listing, reaching €86.50.
Only 12.5 percent of the Stuttgart-based marque (911 million shares) was listed on Germany’s Frankfurt stock exchange and none of the available shares carried voting rights. Some market experts had also expressed concern ahead of the listing over Oliver Blume’s dual roles as head of both Volkswagen and Porsche, but pre-orders for the shares were still massively oversubscribed.
The Porsche IPO raised €19.5 billion ($18.7 bn), half of which goes to VW, who will use it to fund the development of the next generation of electric cars and make sure it’s in a solid position to tackle Tesla and EV brands from China. And to raise even more cash for that venture VW is considering floating its PowerCo battery division, Reuters says.
Related: Sourcing Batteries For All These New EVs After ICE Ban Will Be Challenging, Says VW CFO
“We do not rule out an IPO of the battery unit, but the financial flexibility we won [from today’s Porsche listing] allows us to further strengthen our work in batteries alone. Then we will consider adding strategic partners later on,” VW’s finance boss Arno Antlitz told the news agency.
Antlitz also poured cold water on speculation that VW’s highly profitable Audi brand could also find its way onto the stock market.
“The next project is strategic partnerships or a potential IPO of the battery unit – I cannot say more for now,” he told Reuters.