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Frankfurt - The head of Volkswagen and Porsche on Tuesday urged shareholders of the luxury sports car maker to approve a capital increase worth €5bn as part of a planned VW takeover.
"We ask you to approve the proposed capital increase," Martin Winterkorn told a general assembly of shareholders in the Porsche holding company who had gathered in Stuttgart, southern Germany.
"We can thus lay together the foundation for a promising future," the chairperson of both VW and Porsche added.
Porsche is aiming to complete the increase by the end of May 2011 and use the funds to pay down debt ahead of the takeover by VW.
The carmaker's main shareholders, the Porsche and Piech families and Qatar's sovereign investment fund, have agreed to the increase.
But VW must also convince 75% of those who own preference shares in Porsche Automobil Holding SE.
Winterkorn told them "Porsche would play a central role in the auto group owing to its competence in the making of sports cars."
VW already owns 49.9% of Porsche and wants to acquire the rest by next year but both companies have warned the deal might face delays.
