The long-awaited merger between Porsche and Volkswagen may not happen until next year, the sports car-maker has warned after German prosecutors widened their investigation into the company.
The tie-up between Porsche and VW was first mooted mid last year, in the aftermath of Porsche's botched attempt to buy its larger
rival earlier in the year.
That deal foundered on the company's €9 billion debt pile and was only salvaged by morphing into merger talks.
The run-in with German authorities goes back to 2008, when Porsche revealed it held an extra 32 per cent of VW stock, on top of its known 43 per cent holding. This sent the share price rocketing by 400 per cent, as hedge funds holding Germany's most-shorted stock tried frantically to close their positions.
Investigators are now expanding their inquiry to include allegations that the former Porsche chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking and finance director Holger Haerter took excessive risks.
"There is suspicion that former board members took existential risks for the company by doing share price hedging deals in connection with the attempt to take over Volkswagen," a prosecutor spokeswoman said.
Wiedeking and Haerter, who left the company mid last year, have consistently denied any wrongdoing.
- INDEPENDENT
