Ferdinand Porsche with his 1903 Lohner-Porsche “hybrid” car.
Porsche Automobil Holding SE, Stuttgart has won another legal round in a fight with U.S. hedge funds over what was previously an independent Porsche’s aborted attempt to take over Volkswagen Group.
That hostile move ironically resulted in the exact opposite effect – that of Volkswagen Group swallowing the sports car maker whole when the leveraged funds of the pursuer ran into the brick wall of the Great Recession and margin calls.
The latest twist in this international soap opera occurred when the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the previous U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York’s dismissal of the lawsuits of the eight hedge funds, in which the jurisdiction of the U.S. courts as claimed by the hedge funds was rejected.
Claims Dismissed
The plaintiffs asserted claims against Porsche SE under the U.S. securities laws and common law arising out of Porsche SE’s acquisition of and disclosures regarding Volkswagen ordinary shares in 2008.
This doesn’t end the Porsche matter though, the plaintiffs can act procedurally against this decision, though there seems little point to it.
