Porsche boss to get 100-million-euro payoff via channelnewsasia.com

[g8crasher]

Porsche boss to get 100-million-euro payoff

Posted: 20 July 2009 0132 hrs

Photos 1 of 1

Wendelin Wiedeking

BERLIN: German sportscar maker Porsche's embattled chief executive stands to get a 100-million-euro (140-million-dollar) "golden parachute" following a takeover by Volkswagen, a press report said on Sunday.

The Bild am Sonntag weekly said that it is now no longer a question of if, but of how Wendelin Wiedeking will step aside, and that he will clear his desk voluntarily in the coming week.

Despite strenuous denials by Porsche, several news reports in recent days have said that after 16 years in the driver's seat at Porsche, during which time he has turned the firm around, Wiedeking's days are numbered.

Wiedeking has left Porsche with an enormous debt pile after his attempt to take control of the much larger VW, and VW has now turned the tables by looking to swallow up Porsche.

The Spiegel weekly reports in its Monday edition that VW plans to buy an initial 49.9 percent stake in Porsche and acquire the rest later. Wiedeking however has other ideas and is in talks with Qatar about the Gulf state buying a stake.

Under VW's proposals, the Porsche and Piech family owners of both firms would hold 50 percent in the new company, Spiegel said, with the state of Lower Saxony owning 20 percent and Qatar between 14.9-19.9 percent.

Decisions could come at board meetings of the two companies due to be held separately in Porsche's home city of Stuttgart on Thursday.

Workers at Porsche do not plan to go down without a fight, however, with the head of the firm's works council Uwe Hueck telling the Welt am Sonntag: "VW will never be able to buy the souls of Porsche employees."

The paper said that Porsche workers plan to stage strikes to press for the company's independence from VW to be maintained. - AFP/de