VW, Porsche, Qatar: Menage Trois Complete, May Be Number One This Year

On Friday, the last act of the ménage à trois between Volkswagen, Porsche and the Sheik of Qatar was consumated. After the supervisory boards of Porsche and Volkswagen had given their approving nods to Porsche becoming the tenth brand of Volkswagen, Sheik Hamad bin Dschassim bin Dschaber al-Thani signed on the dotted line and bought 10 percent of coveted voting shares in Porsche SE for his sovereign wealth fund Qatar Holding LLC. Qatar will also take over “most” (says Das Autohaus) of the options on VW stock. They paid €1b for a package of derivatives that gives Qatar access to a 17 percent stake in Volkswagen. As peace breaks out between Wolfsburg and Zuffenhausen, Volkswagen is set to attack a big enemy: Toyota.When the amalgamation is finished in 2011, ownership in the new Volkswagen/Porsche conglomerate (which may be renamed to Auto Union AG) will be as follows:– Piech and Porsche families: 35 to 40 percent.– Lower Saxony: 20 percent– Qatar: 17 percent– Remainder: Widely held (or T.B.A.)After years of infighting; everybody wins:The Porsche/Piech families control the world’s second largest auto maker.Lower Saxony keeps its largest employer in Lower Saxony and can veto any decision.Qatar has bragging rights amongst fellow sheiks: They own a share of their favorite toymaker Porsche, and a good chunk of the currently most successful automaker on the planet.Wendelin Wiedeking walks away with a golden parachute of €50m. €25m of that will be (in a tax advantageous way) donated to a charitable trust, and, as a nod to the cabal that kept Wendy’s popularity high, €1.5m will be donated to organizations that support retired and impoverished journalists.The new Volkswagen/Porsche conglomerate has the right stuff to become the world’s largest automaker, said Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn after announcing the successful consummation of the three-way nuptials. Lower Saxony’s premier Christian Wulff, who sits on the VW supervisory board and had a deft hand in Piech’s victory over upstart Wiedeking, sets the same goal. “It is our clear target to become the number one in the worldwide auto business,” Wulff declared to Germany’s Handelsblatt.A bad case of hyperbola? According to OICA, the world’s official scorekeeper of auto production, Toyota had made 9.2m units in 2008, VW only 6.4.This was 2008, this is now. In June 2009, ToMoCo’s year-to-date worldwide production was down 40.6 percent, whereas Volkswagen’s deliveries were down by only 5 percent. Volkswagen had little to lose in the USA, but is strong in the surging German, Chinese and Brazilian car markets. “Surpassing Toyota in terms of net profit and global production in 2009 suddenly looks like a strong possibility,” wrote Automotive News after looking at the astonishing numbers.Don’t judge VW by their skinny cover(age) of the USA. If current trends continue, Volkswagen may very well rule the world by the end of this year. As of June 2009, Volkswagen had already surpassed Toyota: Volkswagen’s year-to-date deliveries in June were 3.1m, whereas ToMoCo’s worldwide production stood at a little less than 3m.PS: That other German wedding, that of Opel, looks more and more like a severe case of DOA. Reuters says that a deal is not imminent and that “General Motors and the German government played down hopes on Friday of a quick decision on the sale.” This is so dead, it doesn’t even warrant a separate post on TTAC.