Full article
<http://za.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID
=2005-10-29T144355Z_01_BAN953078_RTRIDST_0_OZABS-AUTOS-PORSCHE-20051029.XML&
archived=False>

///exerpt///
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - German luxury carmaker Porsche
prevented a hostile takeover attempt at Volkswagen when it bought a stake in
the world's fourth largest carmaker, Porsche's chief executive told Der
Spiegel.
"Guaranteed -- we broke up a possible deal for some investment bankers,"
Wendelin Wiedeking said in an interview with the German weekly magazine to
be published on Saturday.
"When we were buying, many others were also buying, and to a great extent in
fact and at prices that we never would have wanted to pay."
When asked then whether he meant that hostile investors were just about to
buy large stakes in Volkswagen, the Porsche CEO replied: "That was
definitely the case (and) we prevented it."
Although Germany's Volkswagen Law prevents any one single shareholder from
exercising more than 20 percent of his or her voting rights, it cannot
prevent a group of investors acting in concert to effectively launch a
hostile takeover of the company.
The European Commission is suing Germany at the European Court of Justice in
an attempt to finally topple the VW law.
Wiedeking also told Der Spiegel there was little cause for concern over a
potential conflict of interest when Porsche -- VW's largest single investor
-- eventually sits on its supervisory board.
"Volkswagen sells only 2.8 percent of its products in the same segments as
Porsche. An overlap first starts to become relevant for antitrust
authorities when it is 25 to 33 percent," Wiedeking said.
Porsche would even greet deeper ties between VW and U.S.-German carmaker
DaimlerChrysler, he added.

//more clipped//

jimt