(updates with full quotes from CEO)
STUTTGART (Thomson Financial) – Porsche AG said the state of Lower Saxony, which holds around 20 pct stake in Volkswagen AG, should remain on the supervisory board even after the Volkswagen Law is scrapped.
‘Porsche accepts that Lower Saxony is represented on the VW supervisory board in a way that is appropriate to the level of shares it holds,’ Porsche chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking said in a statement.
He said he would welcome Lower Saxony chief minister Christian Wulff and the state’s economy minister Walter Hirsche to remain on the VW supervisory board.
Porsche, which holds around 31 pct in VW, also said it welcomes the EU Court of Justice decision against the ‘Volkswagen law’, upholding a European Commission claim that Germany has prevented the free movement of capital by effectively protecting the car giant against takeover.
‘Given our voting rights of just above 30 pct in VW, we are naturally very interested in being able to exercise completely our voting rights,’ Wiedeking said.
Porsche said last September that it intends to raise its VW stake to 50 pct once the law is scrapped by the EU court.
The commission brought the action against Germany in March 2005, claiming that the VW law, dating from 1960, contains provisions regarding the shareholding and management of the group which differ from standard company laws.
The law bans any single shareholder from holding more than 20 pct of voting rights in the company.
marilyn.gerlach@thomson.com
mog/slm/mog/lht
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