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The Porsche SE, the holding company of the Porsche and Piëch families, plans to diversify its portfolio and seek larger investments in the future. "Our financial resources give us significant leeway for potential investments in further core and portfolio participations," said CFO Johannes Lattwein. So far, the holding has mainly held larger share packages in the Volkswagen Group and the sports car maker Porsche AG as core participations.
Investment in bus and rail portal Flix
In addition, the Porsche SE (PSE) has recently built up smaller participations in companies in the mobility sector. On Monday, for example, the Stuttgart-based company announced that it would be investing in the Munich-based bus and rail portal Flix as part of a co-investment with the Swedish financial investor EQT. The amount involved is in the low double-digit million range.
Together with the Kühne Holding, owned by Hamburg logistics billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne, EQT had already announced in early July that it would be buying 35 percent of Flix. The "Handelsblatt" newspaper estimated the total investment at around 900 million euros, citing financial circles.
The PSE holding is directly involved in Porsche AG with a 12.5 percent stake. In addition, it has a stake with majority voting rights in the Volkswagen Group, which in turn holds a majority stake in the sports car maker. Other participations currently play a subordinate role in the portfolio: Apart from the valuation of the VW shares (51.9 billion euros) and those of Porsche AG (10.4 billion euros), these amounted to only 138 million euros at the end of June.
Lower profit in the first half of the year
In the first half of the year, the Porsche SE made less profit due to problems in the VW Group. After tax, the net result fell by almost eight percent to 2.13 billion euros. The participation result from the VW Group decreased, while effects from the participation in Porsche AG had a positive impact.
The after-tax result of the PSE is significantly influenced by the two core participations. Both Volkswagen and Porsche AG reported lower net profits in the first half of the year. The Porsche SE also lowered its earnings forecast for the year at the beginning of July together with the VW Group.
Debt reduced
The holding company reduced its debt, which had accumulated through the Porsche IPO two years ago, to around 5.0 billion euros by the middle of the year. At the end of March, the debt had still been around 5.8 billion euros. Above all, the dividends received from VW and Porsche AG were beneficial to the company. The management confirmed the forecasts for the after-tax result and the net debt for 2024.
The Porsche SE's investment in Flix demonstrates its interest in diversifying beyond its traditional automobile investments, as the company invested in the bus and rail portal along with EQT. Despite having a substantial stake in both Porsche AG and the Volkswagen Group, Germany-based PSE's smaller investments in other mobility sector companies only make up a small portion of its portfolio, amounting to 138 million euros at the end of June.
