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Porsche took pole position as Europe’s most valuable automaker yesterday, overtaking former parent Volkswagen as the price of the sportscar maker’s newly-listed shares sped higher.
Although Porsche shares had fallen below its listing price on Monday to 81 euros, in line with a wider fall in markets, they rose to 93 euros ($91.95) earlier yesterday, giving the sportscar brand a market valuation of 85 billion euros. They later eased to 91.04 euros but the company’s valuation was still well above that of Volkswagen at just under 84bn euros.
Porsche’s share price regained momentum after investment banks involved in its flotation had purchased almost 3.8 million shares for 312.8m euros as part of the so-called greenshoe option, designed to support a listing.
Volkswagen is valued at 77.7bn euros with Mercedes-Benz third among European carmakers with a 57.2bn euro valuation, followed by BMW at 47.5bn euros and Stellantis at 39.7bn.
“Inflation data from Europe and the United States, recent worries over energy supply in Europe and the escalation of the war in Ukraine last Thursday led to fluctuations which made small-scale stabilisation measures necessary,” a spokesperson for Volkswagen said.
Porsche is the fifth most valuable listed company in Germany, after Linde, SAP, Deutsche Telekom and Siemens, and the 25th most valuable stock in Europe, above giants like Glencore. The shares purchased between Sept 29 and Oct 4 represented around 11 per cent of the total trading volume since the listing, the spokesperson added, consisting of around 34m shares.
Overall, up to 14.85m shares worth 1.2bn euros are available via the greenshoe option in the four weeks after the offering as a stabilisation measure.
Bank of America acquired the shares for between 81-82.50 euros, compared to the original issue price of 82.50, it said in a statement on Wednesday.
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