Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Hedge funds sue Porsche for £615m
Manhattan court
The lawsuit was filed by, among others, Elliott Associates, Glenhill Capital Management, Glenview Capital Management and Perry Capital in a Manhattan federal court.
It is alleged that ex-chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking and ex-vice president of finance Holger Haerter "repeatedly misled investors".
In a statement the hedge funds involved said: "The Complaint alleges that the defendants repeatedly misled investors and lied about Porsche SE's positions and intentions with respect to VW in order to take control of VW while preventing the price of VW shares from rising to reflect their intentions.
"The defendants' actions enabled them to hide the extent to which Porsche SE had cornered the market in VW's freely traded shares and simultaneously induced the plaintiff funds to establish short positions on the same shares."
Capital markets law
Porsche denies any wrongdoing saying it "always abided by current capital markets law"
Wiedeking quit Porsche last year with a Euro 50m payoff along with chief financial officer Haerter who received Euro 12.5m. The two were forced out of the company after their gamble to take control of VW backfired.
DATED: 27.01.10
FEED: MT
