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Porsche billionaire owners forming platform to invest in defense startups
Porsche Automobil Holding SE is dropping a previous requirement that targets need to have not just military but also civilian applications.
Porsche AG and Volkswagen AG’s owners are setting up a fund to make defense-industry investments, hoping to ride a surge in European military spending.
Porsche Automobil Holding SE, the holding company of the Porsche-Piëch billionaire owner family, said Wednesday it’s forming a platform with partners it didn’t name to invest in defense startups. The company is dropping a previous requirement that targets need to have not just military but also civilian applications.
“Our aim is to increase our involvement in the defense and defense-related sectors while maintaining our core focus on mobility and industrial technology,” Chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch said. The company also lowered its earnings guidance due to weakness in the auto industry.
Tapping into new sectors may prove lucrative as Europe prepares to unlock hundreds of billions of euros in defense and infrastructure expenditures. Porsche SE announced in March it was considering a third long-term anchor investment in defense or infrastructure, separate from its holdings in VW and Porsche.
Independent of the fund, Porsche SE said it’s “intensively examining” possible defense investments, with a focus on areas such as satellite surveillance, reconnaissance and sensor systems, cybersecurity or logistics and supply systems.
The family’s automotive empire has a long history of civil-military activities. Volkswagen operates a joint venture with Rheinmetall AG to make military vehicles, and Porsche SE last year made a double-digit million-euro investment in Munich-based drone manufacturer Quantum Systems.
Ferdinand Porsche, the late founder of the sports-car brand, helped develop tanks for Nazi Germany. He designed the Beetle, used as a basis for military vehicles Volkswagen produced during World War II. The automaker later manufactured the Volkswagen Type 181, also called The Thing, for the West German Army and then for civilian customers in the UK and the US.
Ferdinand’s descendants — including his grandsons Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, who designed the 911, and Ferdinand Piëch, a former Volkswagen CEO — formed the basis of the owner family.
Separately on Wednesday, Porsche SE cut its earnings outlook, citing lower profit expectations at Porsche and Volkswagen. The company now expects an adjusted group result after tax of at least €1.6 billion ($1.9 billion), from a minimum of €2.4 billion previously.
