Porsche's Wiedeking on Death Row

Until a few weeks ago, Porsche’s Wiedeking and his CFO, Holger Härter, were feted as the masters of the universe and Jesus Christ rolled into two. After pulling off the impossible feat of showing more profits than sales twice in a row, the two were said to be able of walking on water while turning it in to wine. Now, they are busy updating their résumés. Or maybe even their last wills.According to the German magazine Der Spiegel, “the fate of Porsche chief Wendelin Wiedeking and Porsche’s CFO Holger Härter appears to be sealed. Large parts of the Porsche-Piech clan want to keep the two on board until there is a solution to Porsche’s high debt load. Then they have to go.”In a sit-down with The Family, the two were accused of having committed inexcusable mistakes and of putting Porsche in peril. Their departure is “only a matter on months” said a confidante of The Family, obviously dispatched to prepare the world for the impending demise.The fall from champs to chumps was caused by a sudden shortage of money at Porsche. While David Porsche took over Goliath VW, little Dave bit off more than he can chew. Härter had bragged to The Family that “banks would line up to give Porsche €10 billion, possibly even €14 billion to €17 billion.” Instead, banks played hardball.Porsche barely got their €10 billion, but had to put their VW stock in hock. Even more embarrassing and threatening, The Family had to take their crown jewels to the pawnshop and sign over shares in the mother ship, Porsche Holding GmbH in Salzburg, as security.In a few months, Porsche has to pay back €3.3 billion—if they don’t find a new investor, they are done. According to Der Spiegel, “Porsche’s gain is nearly completely eaten up by the interest for the debt.Suddenly, reports of Volkswagen buying Porsche’s car business don’t look like the clever move, as the story was spun. According to Automobilwoche [sub] it’s payback time for Ferdinand Piech, who wanted to get rid of upstart Wiedeking. On Piech’s side: The state of Lower Saxony and the powerful unions. It’s not beyond imagination that there may be a bit of revenge in play for the gigantic short squeeze caused by Wiedeking & Härter. As any auto engineer has learned: What goes around, comes around.Porsche is denying all allegations of an impending defenestration, of any mistakes made, and of any financial troubles. All hunky-dory in Zuffenhausen.In the meantime, The Emir of Qatar plans to buy a stake in Porsche, possibly shoring up the German sportscar maker’s strained finances, the German magazine Focus reports. The head of the gulf emirate has informed Porsche of his interest, Focus says.The bank managers should be pleased to see Wiedeking go, because this would make them look less impoverished. Wiedeking “makes more money than two dozen German bank CEOs in total,” says das Handelblatt. If Wiedeking goes, we’ll be losing the best paid auto CEO of the universe. His salary last year was €80 million—his contract says that he’s entitled to an annual bonus of 0.9 percent of Porsche’s profit. He probably saved enough for a nice early retirement.