'VW, Porsche need foreign investor'

BERLIN: Volkswagen AG, Europe���s biggest carmaker, and Porsche SE should sell a stake in the company resulting from a merger to a foreign investor, said Germany���s Lower Saxony, the VW shareholder with veto power.

The German state has no intention of increasing its 20% stake in VW after the carmaker���s planned combination with Porsche, Lower Saxony Prime Minister Christian Wulff said in an interview in Volkswagen���s hometown of Wolfsburg. About 30% of the new company will be available to investors once the owners sort out its structure, he said.

���This is a considerable portion that would be open to many possible investors,��� Wulff, 49, said. ���We���re open to those investors. Lower Saxony���s role will remain the way it is now.���

Porsche is in ���promising talks��� with a potential investor, a company spokesman said today, declining to elaborate. The carmaker was in negotiations with Arab investors including Qatar���s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, a person familiar with the talks said earlier this month.

Talks between the automakers to hash out details of a merger were put on hold after VW Supervisory Board Chairman Ferdinand Piech challenged Stuttgart, Germany-based Porsche���s finances and Bernd Osterloh, VW���s works council chief, asked to quit the negotiations. Porsche workers demonstrated yesterday against a combination with VW and demanded independence. The Porsche and Piech families control 50% of Porsche, which owns 51% of Volkswagen.