New legal tussle over Porsche’s failed takeover bid for Volkswagen

Seven hedge funds have filed a €1.8 billion lawsuit against Porsche’s chairman and another board member, in the latest legal tussle over the carmaker’s failed takeover bid for Volkswagen.

The hedge funds accuse Porsche and its management of misleading the market in the run-up to the disclosure in late 2008 that the group was seeking to take control of its much larger peer.

Wolfgang Porsche and Ferdinand Piëch, who is also chairman of Volkswagen, faced a civil claim in a Frankfurt court for €1.8 billion in damages from the funds, the carmaker said in a statement. The two automotive grandees, both grandsons of founder Ferdinand Porsche, will be supported by the company, which described the action as “a trial tactic” and “without merit”.

Porsche SE, a holding company, is facing a suit filed in 2012 in Hanover from the same funds. Porsche said the claim against the board members did not include anything new. “Porsche SE confirms that all press releases the company published during the period in dispute are truthful,” Porsche said in a statement.– (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2014)