By Victoria Waldersee and Emma-Victoria Farr
FRANKFURT, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Porsche AG made its stock market debut on Thursday, with a price of around 75 billion euros ($72.45 billion) after Volkswagen pegged the share price at the high of the fork, braving market turbulence.
The IPO, which is expected to raise around 19.5 billion euros ($19.0 billion), comes as instability in European markets has deterred other share sales by automakers, including in luxury brands.
The sale values Porsche AG close to the market capitalization of its parent company Volkswagen, which is worth around 84 billion euros, and puts it ahead of rivals like Ferrari.
The books closed on Wednesday on what is one of the biggest IPOs in Europe and the second in Germany since Deutsche Telekom debuted in 1996, at the high end of the 76.50-82 range. .50 euros announced earlier this month.
The shares opened at 84.00 euros each and traded at 82.88 euros at 07:33 GMT.
Shares of Porsche SE fell 5.7% at the start of Frankfurt trading. Shares of Volkswagen were down 4.9% at the start of Frankfurt trading.
Continental European companies raised the smallest amount this year since the 2009 global financial crisis at $44 billion, of which only $4.5 billion came from IPOs, according to Refinitiv data.
Volkswagen said market volatility was precisely why fund managers with money to invest badly needed a stable and attractive stock like Porsche AG.
“Porsche was and is the pearl of the Volkswagen Group,” said Chris-Oliver Schickentanz, chief investment officer at fund manager Capitell.
“The IPO has now made it very, very transparent what value the market brings to Porsche. Of course, this also has a positive effect on Volkswagen shareholders.”
Faced with tens of billions in costs for a radical shift to electric mobility and software, Volkswagen executives had long considered listing Porsche, a move they hoped would both raise cash essentials and increase the value of Volkswagen.
The Porsche and Piech families, in turn, will consolidate their control of the automaker with 25%, plus one ordinary share – with voting rights – in Porsche AG, effectively giving them a blocking minority in the eponymous brand.
Up to 113,875,000 preferred shares, non-voting, will be sold to investors during the IPO. ($1 = 1.0352 euros)
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee and Emma-Victoria Farr; Writing by Victoria Waldersee and Matthias Williams; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Richard Pullin and Jane Merriman)