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Porsche Board to Mull Offers from Qatar, VW | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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FRANKFURT (AFP) – The German luxury sports car maker Porsche has scheduled an extraordinary meeting of its supervisory board on July 23 to discuss offers by Qatar and Volkswagen, sources said on Friday.

A Porsche spokesman confirmed the meeting, while a source close to the supervisory board said the Qatar and VW offers would be discussed.

Invitations were extended by Wolfgang Porsche, head of the supervisory board, the spokesman said.

Heavily-indebted Porsche recently received an offer from the Qatar Investment Authority and has expressed confidence it would reach agreement on selling a direct stake in Porsche along with VW stock options.

A deal would allow Porsche to pay off some of the nine billion euros (12.6 billion dollars) in debt it accumulated trying to increase its holding in VW, the biggest European car maker.

Porsche currently owns about 51 percent of VW.

But VW has also made a counteroffer for 49 percent of Porsche’s core sportscar operations in a boardroom drama between the carmakers’ dominant influences, the Porsche and Piech families.

Discussions with Qatar have been troubled by the dispute between the two groups.

A takeover of Porsche by VW would reinforce the power of Ferdinand Piech, a major shareholder in Porsche and head of the VW supervisory board.

A deal with Qatar would boost Wolfgang Porsche and give his company a chance to renew its takeover bid for the much bigger VW, and preserve the chances of Porsche boss Wendelin Wiedeking keeping his job.

In late June, the Porsche group rejected VW’s counter offer, saying it “is not a practical solution.”

On Friday, the Porsche spokesman said however that for the automaker, “the goal remains the creation of an integrated group” with VW.