STUTTGART, Germany — The best thing Volkswagen AG can do when it carries through its proposed merger with Porsche is this: Leave Porsche alone and reap the revenue from a glossy brand with loyal, rich customers, analysts say.
Having emerged Thursday atop a power struggle among members of the Piech and Porsche families — who control Porsche Autombil Holding SE — that cost Wendelin Wiedeking his job as Porsche chief executive, Volkswagen is left to gather the spoils, namely the marquee Porsche name that will soon be counted with Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini, already among its stable of luxury brands.
“I don’t think Volkswagen will change it much, Porsche is such a brand,” Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners, told The Associated Press. “There’s huge value in just the brand. It’d be best to leave it alone.”
Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn, who ran luxury brand Audi under VW ownership, said that is just what Europe’s biggest automaker by sales plans to do.
“Like Audi today, Porsche can also continue its independent development under the aegis of Volkswagen and preserve its own identity,” he said.
