David Rosenthal: belief

Transcript context

…Isn't it obvious then that it would be hard for Porsche to take over Volkswagen? Porsche and the families needed something to do with the cash. At the time, when they start this, VW shares are a pretty good investment. They're not trading super highly. It's pretty clear to them that it's undervalued, and VW is a critical partner to Porsche. I believe, certainly to the public and probably also to the families, Wiedeking positions this as like, hey, we're deepening the partnership. They don't announce like, hey, I'm trying to take over VW out of my seat at Porsche. In September 2005, Porsche spends $4 billion to acquire 20% of the VW Group on the open market. It's creeping takeover vibes that you alluded to in the intro. At this point, Wiedeking and Porsche's CFO joins the Volkswagen board. They keep buying shares, but using another patented Bernard Arnault technique. They do it mostly using various derivatives and options contracts. They're buying the rights to buy shares in the future. There's usually ways to get around regulatory stuff. You're not exceeding caps if you're buying derivatives rather than the shares themselves.…

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