Volkswagen’s third-largest shareholder Qatar Holdings will receive another supervisory board seat after the annual general meeting in May, Lower Saxony prime minister David McAllister said in an interview.
“It’s pretty obvious that Qatar will get a second seat,” McAllister, who represents Lower Saxony on the board, said on Wednesday in Doha. “We are very glad that Qatar has committed itself.” Lower Saxony is VW’s second-biggest owner.
Qatar Holdings, part of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, has a 17 percent VW stake and one representative on the board. The fund also has a holding in Porsche SE.
Porsche agreed to combine with VW in August 2009 after a failed hostile attempt to gain control of the Wolfsburg, Germany-based carmaker. Porsche shareholders backed a 5 billion-euro ($6.8bn) stock sale on November 30 as part of the merger.
Qatar will participate in the capital increase, Chairman Wolfgang Porsche said on Wednesday, adding that the two carmakers “are going to do a lot” in terms of investments in Qatar.
An announcement on VW projects with Qatar may come next month, spokesman Stephan Gruehsem said.
“The supervisory board is where the big strategic decisions are made, and Qatar’s position there will support the merger process,” said Daniel Schwarz, an analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. “Whether they’ll claim a bigger say in operating matters remains to be seen.”
Porsche preferred shares gained as much as 3.55 euros, or 5.5 percent, to 67.75 euros and were up 4.7 percent as of 12:02 p.m. in Frankfurt. VW traded 2.9 percent higher at 117.70 euros.
McAllister said it’s “speculation” as to who will leave the board to make way for another Qatar seat. RWE AG Chief Executive Officer Juergen Grossmann is likely to depart the board after the shareholders meeting on May 3, Manager-Magazin reported last week, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.
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