piech & porsche feud act 3

[Dave]

from the wire

dave
Œ03 rs6
Œ04 allroad tdi
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FRANKFURT (Reuters) -- The Porsche and Piech families will hold about 45
percent to 55 percent stake in an entity to be formed from a planned merger
between Volkswagen and Porsche, according to a German weekly magazine,
citing sources.

The federal state of Lower Saxony will own about 21 percent to 25 percent
stake in the new company, Der Spiegel said in its pre-release on Saturday.
The concept, which is being worked out by Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs,
is still open and it is unclear whether it will be implemented, the report
added.  It noted Lower Saxony Premier Christian Wulff, whose state owns a
blocking minority vote of abound 20 percent in VW, is not prepared to absorb
the financial risks of Porsche company through the merger with Europe's
biggest carmaker.

Focus weekly magazine, also citing sources, said in its pre-release on
Saturday that Lower Saxony and another investor could own about half of the
new combination while the Porsche and Piech families between them would own
the rest.  Focus said a possible investor in the merged entity could be the
Emir of Qatar.  It said Rupert Stadler, currently CEO of VW unit Audi, could
become a compromise candidate and emerge as the new chief executive of the
new company.

A spokesman for Porsche declined comment on the reported shareholdings as
well as on who would be the new CEO but said: "The negotiations should start
next week."   A spokesman for VW declined comment.  Separately, VW union
boss Bernd Osterloh said that a combined VW and Porsche should be structured
through a public limited company that would then govern the new auto giant.
He said a public limited company would allow worker representatives to hold
seats on the supervisory board, according to a pre-release on Saturday of
his interview with Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper.  He said he believes
the new merged entity should not be governed by any new holding company
because "such a path" would be opposed by labor.  VW will lose the
protection afforded by the so-called Volkswagen Law if it were ruled by a
holding company, he added.  The European Commission contends the VW Law
protects Volkswagen from takeovers.

Laden with debt, Porsche Automobil Holding SE has abandoned its original
plan to seize control of Europe's largest automaker and instead agreed to
explore a merger with VW.