Top VW investor Porsche SE eyes further investments

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Porsche SE, the controlling shareholder in German automaker Volkswagen, is financially in a position to consider further investments to diversify its portfolio, its finance chief said alongside first-half results on Tuesday.

“Our financial resources give us considerable flexibility for potential investments in further core and portfolio investments,” Johannes Lattwein, Porsche SE’s board member for finance and IT, said in a statement.

“In doing so, we pursue an active portfolio development approach. The current stock market environment and the resulting overall decrease in company valuations are creating attractive opportunities,” Lattwein added.

The group, whose current portfolio mainly includes non-listed companies, said on Monday it was part of an investor group taking a 35% stake in Flix SE, owner of Greyhound services in North America and FlixBus in Europe.

Porsche SE also recently took a stake in Canadian AI company Waabi Innovation Inc.

During the first six months of the year, Porsche SE saw its net result after tax fall to 2.1 billion euros ($2.3 billion) from 2.3 billion euros a year earlier. For the full year, it is targeting a pre-tax net result of 3.5-5.5 billion euros.

The company reported a reduction in net debt from 5.7 billion euros at the end of last year to 5.0 billion euros as of June 30, at the lower end of its guidance range for this year.

($1 = 0.9144 euros)

(Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach, Writing by Rachel More; Editing by Thomas Seythal and Mark Potter)