The bubbling profits of the Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer Porsche are also paying off for the employees. As the company announces, their performance-related annual bonus – Porsche speaks of a "voluntary special payment" – rises to up to 9050 euros. This is significantly more than last year, when Porsche paid out 7900 euros.

Christian Müßgens

Business correspondent in Hamburg.

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According to Andreas Haffner, Chief Human Resources Officer, employees "have achieved great things in challenging times. It's part of our culture to let them participate in this outcome." The money will flow with the April salary to 27,000 employees of Porsche AG and several subsidiaries in Germany, including Porsche Financial Services and Porsche Logistik GmbH.

The decisive factor for the bonuses is the course of business in the two previous years, in which Porsche earned well. Last year alone, profit rose by almost a third to 6.8 billion euros, which corresponds to an operating return on sales of 18 percent. Employees of the Wolfsburg parent brand VW, like Porsche a part of the Volkswagen Group, will also receive higher bonuses for the past year, as recently announced. After the advance payment of 1730 euros granted in November, another 1900 euros should flow with the May salary, so that the distribution adds up to 3630 euros.

The payments – to both Porsche and VW employees – are independent of special bonuses after Porsche's IPO in autumn. In this context, VW employees received 2000 euros, Porsche employees 3000 euros. In addition, an "inflation compensation premium" of 2000 euros was paid in February.

The successful initial listing of Porsche AG is also paying off for its management, above all CEO Oliver Blume, who also heads the VW Group. It will receive a total of up to EUR 2.37 million in three tranches, while the other members of the Board of Management will receive up to EUR 1.36 million. Overall, the Porsche executive suite could collect a good 10 million euros in bonuses for the IPO.

Share price should benefit

The Stuttgart-based holding Porsche SE, through which the Porsche/Piëch families control their stake in the VW Group and the sports car manufacturer Porsche, also earned more last year. Mainly due to the higher profit of the main holding VW, its result climbed by 200 million euros to 4.8 billion euros, as the holding company announced on Thursday. Now it wants to reduce debts that it took on for the purchase of shares in Porsche AG in the course of the IPO.

In the medium term, Porsche SE's share price should also benefit from this, which the Chairman of the Executive Board, Hans Dieter Pötsch – who is also Chairman of the Supervisory Board of VW – considers too low. The investments in VW and Porsche AG alone correspond to a share price of the holding company of more than 100 euros, he said. In fact, this is only a good 50 euros. "In our view, Porsche SE is significantly undervalued," says Pötsch.

A change is pending at the auditor. After the books and annual financial statements of Porsche SE were last audited by PWC, Grant Thornton will henceforth be responsible, as was announced on Thursday. The new auditor has thus won the mandate for a DAX group for the first time. It is not certain that the previous auditor PWC will meet all the requirements for independence in the future, is a justification in business circles. For example, PWC could get into conflicts through consulting activities in the VW Group.