Volkswagen's Porsche families want greater say ahead of IPO

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Volkswagen's Porsche families want greater say ahead of IPO

HAMBURG Reuters -- Volkswagen's controlling shareholder families want greater say over strategic matters ahead of the planned listing of Porsche, people familiar with the matter say.

The Porsche and Piech families, who control the holding firm Porsche SE - which owns most of Volkswagen's voting rights, are hoping to return the group to calmer waters after a turbulent period under outgoing CEO Herbert Diess, they added.

A person with knowledge of the families' thinking told Reuters that they want to keep an eye on the implementation of the strategic guidelines.

Volkswagen made major steps towards electrification, but his forthright style provoked opposition within the company that sometimes eclipsed his achievements, testing the patience of the families, the sources said.

They plan to run a tighter ship as a result.

The families are actively involved, an ability that they have been believed incapable of, a second source said.

The appointment of Oliver Blume as Volkswagen's next CEO has drawn criticism from several investors because he will also be the boss of Porsche AG despite a planned flotation.

The people said Blume will push through the long-awaited initial public offering IPO of Porsche AG, the families' namesake carmaker he has been leading since 2015, as the preferred candidate of the Porsche and Piech clan.

The IPO is critical to the families as they would become a direct shareholder of Porsche AG after the maker of the iconic 911 model was taken over by Volkswagen in 2009, following a botched attempt by Porsche AG to buy Volkswagen instead.

Hendrik Schmidt, corporate governance expert at DWS, said that the structure of the IPO primarily serves the families' interest in tightening their grip on Porsche, and that they will not be dissuaded from this plan.

The agreed structure of the IPO, which has yet to be confirmed, would give the Porsche and Piech families a blocking minority in the sports car brand that was founded in 1931 by their ancestor Ferdinand Porsche.

Manuel Theisen, retired professor for business administration at Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich and a specialist in corporate governance, said this was a way to claw back some of the families' influence.