German sports car maker Porsche Automobil Holding SE unveiled sharp gains in four-month unit sales and revenue today but left investors guessing about its plans for Volkswagen.
Chief Financial Officer Holger Haerter said he expected profits in the 2007/08 fiscal year ending in July to be "very good" after a "very satisfying" performance from August to the end of November.
Porsche shares, up 11 per cent in the last 6 months, jumped 8.2 per cent to €1,519 by early afternoon, outpacing a 2.1 per cent gain in the DJ Stoxx European autos index.
"Porsche looks to have options in place to increase its stake in VW to well over 50 per cent at a share price below €70," Swiss bank UBS wrote, adding this implied its VW stake was worth so much that at Porsche's current share price its own core car business was valued at zero.
Chief Executive Wendelin Wiedeking, referring once again to developments at Europe's biggest automaker as a chess game, said opposition from VW's workforce meant visibility remained opaque.
"Even now, none of the players involved knows how many moves will still be required and how long it will take until the game is finally over," he said.
At Porsche's annual media conference Wiedeking went so far as to accuse German trade union IG Metall and the Volkswagen works council of "trying to take out at least a rook or a knight on our side."
VW's labour leaders, for years a major power in the group, fear their influence will shrink dramatically should Porsche expand its nearly 31 per cent stake in Volkswagen to a majority now that a law capping voting rights at VW was overturned.
"It is only together, in a fair partnership among equals with Volkswagen, that we will be able to write a new chapter in the history of industry," Wiedeking said.