Porsche 2006 Annual Report Download - page 7

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The most essential feature of this reorientation for our shareholders
is that in future they are shareholders in Porsche Automobil Holding SE.
Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, in turn, the original company so rich in
tradition, will be run by the Holding as a wholly-owned subsidiary.
To carry forward the rights of our workforce directly and without the
slightest change into Porsche’s new era, we have negotiated and
signed a new co-determination agreement with the representatives
of our Company’s employees. This ensures the pro-rata represen-
tation of employees on the Holding’s Supervisory Board, meaning
that Porsche employees will always be represented on the Super-
visory Board in future, even when new companies join the Group.
According to the agreement, the employee representatives of both
member companies will each elect half the members of the SE
Works Council after another Group member company such as for
example Volkswagen has joined the Group. This Works Council will
then elect the six representatives of employees on the SE Super-
visory Board.
It was essential for Porsche’s Board of Management to ensure that
the interests of the employee representatives of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Por-
sche AG, as the Company stands today, are appropriately represent-
ed in the future Holding. After all, it was these employees who in the
first place established the basis for Porsche being able to assume
a share in VW. An equally important point, however, was to ensure
that the rights of the employees of other companies joining the Group
in future are also represented appropriately. Indeed, precisely this
is how we define genuine, active co-determination.
In consideration of these changes, we may rightly assume without
exaggerating that the date of our Extraordinary General Meeting will
most probably go down in the annals of history. For we all realise
that this small Company from an inconspicuous suburb of Stuttgart
has not only succeeded in moving from one record to the next in the
last 15 years, but has rather grown into a new dimension which in
the early ‘90s appeared quite unthinkable. And in making this point
I mean not just our stake in Volkswagen, but rather the development
of Porsche as such.
In the 2006/2007 year of business, Porsche sales, revenues and
earnings are up once again. Despite even keener competition in the
international markets, we have set up new records yet again, with
our earnings being enhanced largely by special effects in connection
with our commitment to Volkswagen. Indeed, earnings from stock
option transactions are more than Euro 3.5 billion. A further point is
that the revaluation of our stake in Volkswagen by Euro 520 million,
as already announced in our half-yearly 2006/2007 results, has a
positive impact on earnings. The announcement of this profit was
essential because the very good development of VW’s results called
for verification and confirmation of the value of our investment.
Our Company is well prepared for the years to come. Porsche is
growing very dynamically in new markets such as China and Russia,
as well as the Middle East and South America – and we are con-
sistently expanding our product range.
In other words, we are preparing for the challenges of the future,
developing not only the hybrid drive concept with its benefits par-
ticularly significant for the environment, but also the four-door
and four-seater Gran Turismo Panamera.
A very important point is that despite all these changes within our Com-
pany we are remaining faithful to ourselves and will not lose touch with
reality in the years to come. We realise that our substantial stake in
Volkswagen gives Porsche a significant challenge. But you may rest
assured that the Board of Management of this Company will continue
to prove and confirm that we are all taking the right path together.
Dr. Wendelin Wiedeking
Chairman of the Board of Management