A few weeks ago, Volkswagen, the parent company of Porsche gave the green light for the Sports car brand IPO. Volkswagen took this route to raise additional funds to boost EV development. Today Porsche AG shares went live at a valuation of 75 billion euros ($72 billion).
That valuation is the second-largest IPO in Germany after Deutsche Telekom in 1996. It’s also close to Volkswagen’s market cap of $81.2 billion. In comparison to other sports car brands, Porsche’s market cap is nearly double that of Ferrari ($36 billion).
Shares of Porsche opened at €84 apiece but went down to €82.88 shortly after. Similarly, shares in Porsche SE, Volkswagen’s largest shareholder, which now also owns a blocking minority in the sportscar brand, were down by 10% as investors switched across. Volkswagen’s shares also fell 6.9% from the open on Thursday to 129.1 euros.
The IPO raised 19.5 billion euros, 9.6 billion of which will go to Volkswagen – just under a fifth of the 52 billion euro budget they required for electrification plans – with the remainder distributed to shareholders as a special dividend.
“We are well set-up financially have strong cash flows to fund our electromobility strategy ourselves,” said Volkswagen’s Chief Financial Officer.