Qatar Takes Stake In Volkswagen

BERLIN (AP) -- Qatar has acquired a 17 percent voting stake in Germany's Volkswagen AG and it will also get a seat on the supervisory board of subsidiary Porsche, according to a company statement Friday.

Until recently, the Gulf state had only had a stake of just below 7 percent, but it used options -- acquired from Porsche months ago -- to build up the holding.

The announcement comes as little surprise, after the Qatar investors announced earlier in August that they intended to acquire a 17 percent stake in Volkswagen, becoming the German investment authority's No. 3 shareholder, after the state of Lower Saxony, where VW is located, and the Porsche and Piech families, which control Porsche SE.

Qatar acquired the options for Volkswagen from Porsche SE this year after mounting debt forced the Stuttgart-based maker of sports cars with a flair for style and high cost to abandon its concerted bid to acquire Volkswagen AG, Europe's biggest automaker by sales.

Volkswagen then turned around and said it would instead take over Porsche.

Volkswagen shares were down by 2.53 percent to euro77.98 ($111.85) in Frankfurt trading after the announcement.