For sale: Porsche

In February just past, The Financial Times reported that Porsche was going to the markets with what is known as an Initial Public Offering (IPO). Wow, Porsche is for sale! Social media and the finance world went crazy with speculation, so much so that Porsche’s owner, Volkswagen, had to issue a statement basically confirming the rumours: it was planning on selling off at least part of Porsche as shares to the public and institutions – about €20 billion’s worth according to the FT.

Usually, this sort of article quickly degenerates into a listicle of ‘10 things you didn’t know about Porsche’s IPO’, which soaks up internet bandwidth without much in the way of illumination. So let’s not do that, but instead look at the whole subject of IPOs, how Porsche’s might look and whether, net, it would be a good or a bad thing.