Porsche board to mull offers from Qatar, VW: Sources

FRANKFURT: The German luxury sports car maker Porsche has scheduled an extraordinary meeting of its supervisory board on July 23 to discuss offers by Qatar and Volkswagen, sources said on Friday.

A Porsche spokesman confirmed the meeting, while a source close to the supervisory board said the Qatar and VW offers would be discussed.

Invitations were extended by Wolfgang Porsche, head of the supervisory board, the spokesman said.

Heavily-indebted Porsche recently received an offer from the Qatar Investment Authority and has expressed confidence it would reach agreement on selling a direct stake in Porsche along with VW stock options.

A deal would allow Porsche to pay off some of the nine billion euros (12.6 billion dollars) in debt it accumulated trying to increase its holding in VW, the biggest European car maker.

Porsche currently owns about 51 per cent of VW.

But VW has also made a counteroffer for 49 per cent of Porsche's core sportscar operations in a boardroom drama between the carmakers' dominant influences, the Porsche and Piech families.

Discussions with Qatar have been troubled by a dispute between the two groups.