Whilst the last financial year has been turbulent for everyone, it is still surprising that Porsche has posted huge losses amounting to $6.6 billion in the financial year ending 31 July 2009. This could easily be dismissed as yet another recession casualty but remember that Porsche had record profits in their previous financial year.

So what’s going on with Porsche you ask then, the answer is heavily linked to the quagmire that is the VW Group, the world’s largest automaker so far this year with four and a half million units produced. When Porsche attempted but failed to take over VW this apparently led to a huge write-down on the VW option shares which Porsche tried to buy on debt.

Now for those of you that have become bored with a news piece essentially about financial results in a petrolhead’s magazine bear with me, because this situation is a strange one.

Porsche 2009 911's

The billions lost was reported by Porsche SE, not to be confused by Porsche AG which is the manufacturing division of Porsche, the most profitable car maker in the world! So whilst the core business shines the holding company that does things unbeknownst to me is bleeding. It gets better, when you consider the wider scope of the German behemoth that is the VW Group. So first Porsche tried to buy VW outright, they already owned a large chunk despite VW being much bigger but the the majority purchase failed, so VW promptly went about buying Porsche. VW owns half of the world already, with the likes of Seat, Bugatti and most notably Audi. The Audi situation makes this whole debacle even more confusing because they own Lamborghini but VW doesn’t own Lambo despite owning everything else, the list of confusing deals goes on and on with this group.

There doesn’t seem to be that many people within the group who know exactly what belongs to whom. I actually find all this amusing because the Germans are famous for efficiency and order and yet the Auto industry is in utter chaos despite being hugely successful.

Lets put all this together shall we. Porsche posts losses in the billions and yet is still profitable, they own a chunk of VW and tried to buy more but that didn’t go well so VW turned around and bought Porsche. VW owns the world but is less profitable than the guys who tried to buy them who they now own. That whole situation just doesn’t make sense, something which is entirely un-German, and I at least find it rather amusing.

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