Porsche 2009 Annual Report Download - page 8

Letter to our shareholders
Dear shareholders,
In the fiscal year 2009/10, Porsche Automobil Holding SE made significant progress towards creating
an integrated automotive group comprising Volkswagen and Porsche. Two key achievements in this connection
are the basic agreement and Volkswagen’s investment in Porsche Zwischenholding GmbH, which have also en-
abled us to reduce the liabilities of Porsche SE considerably.
It is planned to further reduce these liabilities with the capital increase intended for the first half of
2011. The planned issue volume is five billion euro, which is to be raised through the issue of an equal number
of ordinary and preference shares. As part of the overarching concept of the basic agreement, the ordinary
shareholders from the Porsche and Piëch families have made a commitment to approve the resolution and to
subscribe to the new ordinary shares under certain circumstances.
All the stakeholders – Volkswagen, Porsche, the Porsche and Piëch families, and the employee repre-
sentatives of both companies – are working hand in hand to create the integrated automotive group.
Following completion of the capital increase, Porsche SE is to be merged into Volkswagen AG in ac-
cordance with the basic agreement. From today’s perspective, we cannot rule out that the timetable for the
merger in the basic agreement may not be met. The legal and tax review of the transaction required by the ba-
sic agreement is not yet complete. This is due to external factors, including the fact that the tax framework
conditions of the merger still have to be finalized. In addition, the effects that the claims for damages brought
against Porsche SE in the USA and by various fund companies in Germany will have on the merger cannot be
conclusively assessed given the current status of litigation. The executive board of Porsche SE currently as-
sumes that the existing uncertainties can be clarified and that the merger will therefore succeed, albeit possibly
not within the ambitious time frame set out in the basic agreement.
Porsche and Volkswagen are also working flat out to lay the organizational foundations for the merger.
On the basis of clearly defined processes, we are promoting cooperation between the two companies at all lev-
els. In all areas, joint project teams are now well on the way to leveraging the potential synergies identified. The
greatest savings can be achieved through joint purchasing activities and increased collaboration on the devel-
opment of vehicles, modules, drives and electronics. In addition, it will be possible to jointly use many resources
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