Upheaval at Porsche
保时捷的剧变

Exit Wiedeking
魏德金出局

Jul 23rd 2009
From The Economist print edition

The predictable end of a long battle
一场旷日持久商战的如期结局

AP

Wiedeking and Härter, in happier times
魏德金与黑特，意气风发时

IN THE morning of July 23rd, Porsche announced the departure of its chief executive, Wendelin Wiedeking, and its chief financial officer, Holger Härter. The German maker of sports cars thus succumbed to what had appeared inevitable since May, when it called off its improbable attempt to take over Volkswagen, a carmaker 15 times its size.

保时捷(Porsche)在7月23号的早上宣布了其首席执行官文德林•魏德金(Wendelin Wiedeking)和首席财务官霍格尔•黑特(Holger Härter)已经离职的消息。自今年五月意图收购大众汽车(Volkswagen,一个规模为保时捷15倍的汽车制造商)失败以来，这家德国跑车制造商终于屈从于这个似乎不可避免的结局。

The departures of both men will pave the way for a merger, but one very much on VW’s terms. Porsche, which under Mr Wiedeking became the highest-margin producer in the car industry, will now be fully integrated into the VW Group, joining seven other car brands: VW, Audi, Skoda, Seat, Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti. As The Economist went to press, a meeting of VW’s supervisory board was expected to confirm the commitment to bring Porsche into the fold.

这两人的离开为两家公司的合并铺平了道路，对大众汽车来说这更是好事儿。在魏德金的领导下保时捷已经成为业界利润率最高的企业，然而现在这家公司将被完全整合进大众集团。保时捷也将成为大众集团其下继大众，奥迪，斯柯达，西亚特，宾利，兰博基尼和布加迪后的另一个品牌。在本期经济学人杂志刊印时，大众监事会会举行一次会议，预期届时大众集团将保时捷收入囊中的计划将被证实。

For VW’s chairman, 72-year-old Ferdinand Piëch, who is also a major shareholder in Porsche, it will have been a moment to savour. As recently as late last year, Mr Wiedeking appeared on course to oust Mr Piëch and complete the acquisition of VW, the fruition of an audacious plan conceived by Mr Härter as long ago as 2005. The hard-charging Mr Wiedeking had come to see Mr Piëch as an obstacle in his path and the arch-representative of the old ways of doing things at VW. These included cosy relationships with the unions and the state of Lower Saxony, which has a veto on important decisions thanks to a 20% stake and the archaic “VW Law”.

对于大众的主席，72岁的费迪南德•皮耶希(Ferdinand Piech)来说这是一个值得庆贺的时刻。他同时也是保时捷的主要股东之一。直到去年年底前，魏德金一直按孤立皮耶希、完成收购大众的路线实行。为了实现这一大胆的计划，早在2005年，黑特就已经开始谋划。在积极推进这一计划的魏德金看来，皮耶希是行进路线上的绊脚石和大众老派作风的总代表——总是迁就工会与下萨克森州政府。由于古老的“大众公司法”和20%的股权，下萨克森州政府对大众汽车的重要决策拥有否决权。

Last October Porsche triggered a sensational squeeze on short-sellers when it was slow to admit that it had raised its stake in VW voting shares to 42.6% while acquiring a further 31.5% in the form of secured options. For a time, VW was the most valuable company in the world. A month later Mr Wiedeking unveiled profits that exceeded revenue thanks to the appreciation of euro6.8 billion ($8.7 billion) in the value of its stake in VW. He declared that with the help of a euro10 billion credit line to realise its options, Porsche would press for “dominant control” of the larger firm.

去年10月份，当保时捷承认已将其对大众汽车的持股(有投票权股份，下同)比例增加至42.6%，并以认购期权的形式锁定了另外31.5%的股份时，卖空者遭到了空前的打压。以至于大众汽车一度成为世界上市值最高的公司。在那之后一个月，魏德金公布了保时捷超预期的利润，原因是其所持有的大众汽车股份出现了68亿欧元(87亿美元)的溢价。同时他表示，其期权的行权将会获得银行100亿欧元的信贷支持，届时保时捷将会获得大众汽车的绝对控制权。

That proved to be the high point of Mr Wiedeking’s vaulting ambition. Although Porsche increased its holding in VW to 50.8% in January, it could only do so by almost tripling its net debt to euro9 billion—at just the moment when its car sales were going into free fall and the credit markets were shutting up shop.

这被证明是魏德金巨大野心(注1)的最高点。尽管保时捷在一月份增持大众股份至50.8%，但因此保时捷的净债务也增加了近3倍，至90亿欧元。与此同时，汽车销量的直线下降以及信贷市场的歇业更令保时捷雪上加霜。

Perhaps if Porsche had managed to get the VW Law overturned, everything might still have worked out for Mr Wiedeking. He would then have been able to exploit Porsche’s anticipated 75% stake in VW to pay down the debt with the help of the bigger company’s euro11 billion cash pile. But at the prompting of Christian Wolff, Lower Saxony’s premier and a fellow Christian Democrat, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, risked the wrath of the European Commission by refusing to end the state’s blocking minority.

如果保时捷能够设法废除大众公司法，对于魏德金来说，也许这一切仍有挽回的余地——他可以利用保时捷在大众汽车中所预期持有75%的股份，从而动用大众汽车110亿欧元的现金资产来偿付保时捷的债务。但是，在下萨克森州州长克里斯蒂安·沃尔夫(Christian Wolff)和基督教民主党员，德国总理安吉拉·默克尔(Angela Merkel)的推动下，德国拒绝执行欧盟委员会的裁决，仍继续沿用少数否决制的大众公司法。

On May 6th the warring Porsche and Piëch families, which own all the voting stock of the holding company that controls Porsche, agreed to find a way of merging the two carmakers. The game was all but up. As Mr Piëch gloated, Mr Wiedeking and Mr Härter made a last desperate attempt to salvage something from the wreckage of their plans. Their hopes rested on selling a substantial stake in Porsche to a Qatari sovereign-wealth fund and then negotiating with VW from a position of greater strength. However, the Qataris were reluctant to become involved in the feud between the families and had their eye on a substantial shareholding in the merged group. They insisted that they would invest only once the parties had come to terms.

波尔舍(Porsche)家族与皮耶希(Piëch)家族拥有保时捷控股公司所有投票权股票，在5月6号，这对冤家同意坐下来协商一个合并两家汽车制造商的方法。但这一提议已然告吹。在皮耶希准备欢庆胜利之时，魏德金与黑特将他们翻盘的最后的希望押宝在——卡塔尔主权财富基金能够接手大量保时捷股票上——这样他们在与大众汽车的谈判中才不至于太过被动。虽然这家基金对合并后集团的股票非常有兴趣，但是他们拒绝卷入这两个家族间的争斗。他们坚持只有在这两个家族达成一致后才会投资。

For Mr Wiedeking and Mr Härter that meant one thing: a dignified exit. A statement from Porsche said that they saw their departure “as a significant contribution to the appeasement of the situation and to support the forming of an integrated car manufacturing company.” Not too many tears should be shed for the pair, who last year earned more than euro100m between them. But for Porsche, it is a sad end to 78 years of proud independence.

对魏德金与黑特来说，现在只有一条路可走了：有尊严地离开。保时捷在一份声明中这样说到：他们的离开“是为了改善(公司)的处境并支持(公司)组建成一家联合汽车制造企业而做出的重大贡献。”对于这对去年薪水超过1亿欧元的难兄难弟，我们其实不必太过伤心。我们更应该为保时捷叹息——引以为傲的78年独立就这样结束了。