FRANKFURT (Dow Jones)--Porsche Automobil Holding SE (PAH3.XE) said Friday the rift between the Piech and Porsche owner families has been resolved, adding that both families fully support Porsche Chief Executive Wendelin Wiedeking and his plan to take over Volkswagen AG (VOW.XE).
"It wasn't in the interest of Ferdinand Piech if there were uncertainties about the joint goal of the families regarding the stakeholding in VW," Porsche supervisory board Chairman Wolfgang Porsche said in a statement.
Wolfgang Porsche's cousin Piech is a former Volkswagen CEO and now the company's supervisory board chairman. Porsche owns 35.14% of Volkswagen, but aims to boost this to a majority stake by the end of November.
However, by surprisingly abstaining from a board vote in September Piech caused confusion about the plans of the Porsche and Piech families, which control 100% of the voting rights of the small but highly profitable sportscar maker.
By abstaining, Piech allowed VW's powerful labor unions to push through a vote under which Porsche would need approval from Volkswagen's supervisory board for any future cooperation deal between it and VW's Audi AG (NSU.XE) premium unit even if the carmaker becomes a majority shareholder of the parent firm.
Wolfgang Porsche said that in the absence of Ferdinand Piech, Volkswagen's supervisory board Sept. 12 agreed on creating "a committee for special business connections."
"This committee has been legally examined with the conclusion that it (interferes) too much (with) the competencies of the VW (executive) board. That's why Ferdinand Piech will request the dissolution of this committee at the next VW supervisory board meeting," Wolfgang Porsche said.
The company said Piech, along with the other family members, sees no need for a new version of the Volkswagen Law "especially after the far-reaching concessions offered by the board of Porsche on the question of job security."
Under the new version of the Volkswagen Law, drafted by the German Justice Ministry, the German state of Lower Saxony would keep a blocking minority on important company decisions through its stake of just above 20%.
The Volkswagen Law has repeatedly been criticized by the European Commission for breaching European competition law. Lower Saxony is Volkswagen's second-biggest shareholder after Porsche.
Porsche wants the blocking minority to be hiked to 25% from 20% as it seeks to gain full control after the takeover is completed.
Porsche said Piech also supports the idea that the workers of Volkswagen and Porsche should be represented by three seats each on the supervisory board of a combined company.
Web site:
www.porsche.com
Linear Mode
