Who Owns Porsche?

Porsche is owned by Volkswagen — and Volkswagen is controlled by the Porsche family. Volkswagen AG holds 75% minus one share of the voting shares in Porsche AG; Porsche SE, the Porsche and Piëch families’ holding company, holds 25% plus one share — a deliberate blocking minority — and separately controls the majority of the votes in Volkswagen itself. Companies House records Volkswagen AG as the controller of the UK company. Ownership verified 6 September 2026.

Who owns the Porsche brand?

The carmaker is Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, based in Stuttgart and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since its flotation in September 2022.

The UK company is PORSCHE CARS GREAT BRITAIN LIMITED (00861097), incorporated 8 October 1965 and registered at Bath Road, Calcot, Reading. Its person with significant control is Volkswagen AG (Germany, HRB 100484), holding 75% or more of shares and voting rights since 6 April 2016.

The register has not needed to change through the flotation, because Volkswagen’s holding has stayed above the 75% band throughout.

Parent company and ultimate owner

Porsche’s structure is the most circular on this site, and the numbers are chosen with precision:

1. Porsche AG — voting shares held 75% minus one share by Volkswagen AG, and 25% plus one share by Porsche SE
2. Volkswagen AG — around 53% of the voting shares held by Porsche SE
3. Porsche Automobil Holding SE — controlled by the Porsche and Piëch families

Two details are doing the work. Volkswagen’s 75% minus one share keeps it just below the threshold at which German law allows a dominating profit-transfer arrangement to be imposed. Porsche SE’s 25% plus one share is a blocking minority — enough to veto the decisions that require a three-quarters majority.

So the families sit above Volkswagen and beside it at the same time, holding a direct stake in Porsche AG as well as control of the company that owns most of it. It is not an accident of history; it was constructed at the 2022 flotation.

Brand owner vs operating company

Porsche AG owns the brand and builds the cars. Porsche Cars Great Britain Limited imports and sells them here, alongside Porsche Financial Services Great Britain Limited (03708834) and Porsche Design Great Britain Limited (05309560), all at the same Reading address.

Porsche AG’s own shares come in two classes. The ordinary shares carry the votes and are held entirely by Volkswagen and Porsche SE. The preferred shares are the ones listed in Frankfurt and available to the public — and they carry no votes at all. Buying Porsche stock buys a share of the profits and no say in the company, which is a sharper version of the founder-control patterns seen at Spotify and Meta elsewhere on this site.

When the ownership changed

The famous episode is the takeover that went the wrong way. In 2008 Porsche attempted to acquire Volkswagen, a far larger company, building a position through options. The financial crisis left it with unmanageable debt, and the outcome was the reverse of the intention: Volkswagen took control of the Porsche car business instead, completing in 2012.

What survived of the Porsche side was the holding company. Porsche SE kept its stake in Volkswagen, which is why the families ended up controlling the group that had absorbed their carmaker.

In September 2022 Volkswagen floated Porsche AG, selling preferred shares to the public and 25% plus one ordinary share to Porsche SE. It was one of the largest European flotations in decades, and it restored the families to a direct stake in the car company for the first time in a decade — without giving public investors any votes.

Related brands in the same group

Volkswagen Group owns Porsche, Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini, Škoda, SEAT/Cupra, Ducati and the Volkswagen brand, plus its commercial vehicle businesses.

Porsche AG has held a 45% stake in Bugatti Rimac, which it agreed in April 2026 to sell to a consortium led by HOF Capital — a sale signed but, as this site’s Bugatti profile sets out, not yet completed.

Porsche and Volkswagen have been intertwined since the beginning: Ferdinand Porsche designed the original Beetle. The two companies have shared engineering, platforms and, at various times, ownership in both directions.

Sources and verification

The UK company numbers, the 1965 incorporation date and the Volkswagen AG PSC entry are from the Companies House register.

The share structure above it is not, and cannot be — Porsche AG, Volkswagen AG and Porsche SE are German companies filing in Germany and reporting to the Frankfurt market. The 75%-minus-one and 25%-plus-one figures come from the companies’ own disclosures at the flotation and since. The families’ control of Porsche SE is well documented but held through family arrangements that are not published in the way a UK PSC register would be. Companies House does not verify most filed information.