Porsche shares drop below IPO price within days of making debut

Porsche stock traded below the price it debuted at last week, succumbing to the market pressures Volkswagen AG defied by going ahead with Europe’s biggest initial public offering in more than a decade.

The sports-car maker’s shares traded down as much as 1.8% to €81 on Monday, roughly in line with the drop in the blue chip Euro Stoxx 50 Index. Porsche debuted at €82.50 — the high end of the range VW sought — on September 29 in Europe’s biggest IPO since miner Glencore Plc raised almost $10 billion in 2011.

Porsche’s listing reaped roughly €9.4 billion ($9.2 billion) in proceeds for VW, which went ahead with the IPO amid Europe’s energy squeeze and concerns that global central banks will have to continue raising rates to tame inflation. Oliver Blume, chief executive officer of both VW and Porsche, has said the maker of the 911 will win over investors by showing resiliency as it has in recent crises, including the pandemic and subsequent semiconductor shortage.

“We have shown during the last years a very strong and robust financial profile,” Blume told Bloomberg Television last week outside the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. “Investors like to invest in stable businesses.”

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