A Germany’s economy ministry spokesman on Friday said he saw no basis at the moment for a decision on whether to grant state aid to Porsche.
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The luxury car and SUV maker said on Thursday it had appointments with politicians and the KfW state bank this week to discuss a loan application, Reuters noted. But, according to a Friday Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) report, citing German press agency DPA, the sports car maker had not yet presented any new plea.
Earlier on Thursday, an economy ministry official had told Reuters state bank KfW should inform Porsche that its request for a state loan had been rejected, but that the carmaker was free to submit a fresh aid request.
“We have asked KfW to inform Porsche that we are not pursuing the application (for a loan),” the official said.
The FTD said the rejection was a new blow to Porsche and showed how badly its management had estimated the global economical situation.
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By GlobalDataWhile Opel’s problems were met with support from all political parties, Porsche cannot rely on the government’s protection, the FTD said. Except for Baden-Wuerttemberg’s premier Guenther Oettinger, no other politician had shown any support for Porsche’s credit requests. The Social Democrats’ leader Franz Muentefering and Lower Saxony’s premier Christian Wulff oppose such state aid fiercely.
On Wednesday, citing financial sources, FTD reported the Arab emirate of Qatar was in advanced talks with Porsche over taking a direct stake in subsidiary Volkswagen AG.
Porsche was talking with the emirate about selling options on VW shares, sources “in the know” told Reuters. The possible deal was seen as paving the way for resuming merger talks between Porsche and VW that had recently been put on hold. Such a solution would help Porsche reduce its debts of EUR9bn without a capital increase.
An insider told FTD the sale of options to Qatar is the most probable alternative. The sports car maker holds 51% of VW’s voting rights and has access to more stock via options. The exact volume of options is unclear, but according to earlier information it may be around 20% of the voting rights.
However, all options that have been negotiated are still open and a preliminary decision on one of the alternatives has not been made yet, an informed source told the paper.
Neither Porsche nor VW would comment.
