As expected, four companies bought about 40 percent of the available nonvoting shares. Another 12.5 percent of the stock was sold to the Porsche and Piëch families, heirs of the man who started the company. All told, the IPO raised almost 20 billion euros, half of which will be used to help Volkswagen transition to electric vehicles. The rest will be paid out to the company’s shareholders.
Of course, a number of more regular folks were interested in owning a little bit of Porsche as well. An anonymous source toldthat the order book for the IPO was oversubscribed within hours of opening. Many of those interested were individuals and Porsche fan clubs; some people even sent in photos of their 911s to help persuade Porsche executives and bankers to sell them more shares.
Maybe what they say is true: A picture is worth 1,000 words—or hopefully at least a few Porsche shares.
Biden has given more than that to Ukraine in six months.