The Qatar Investment Authority holds 6.78 percent of the voting shares in Volkswagen AG, Europe's largest carmaker, according to a regulatory filing released late Friday. The statement said the Doha-based Qatar Investment Authority had acquired the more than 20 million voting share stake over the last two weeks, breaking the 5 percent threshold Aug. 26. Financial details weren't disclosed. The shares are now controlled by the investment authority and three of its holding companies in Doha, Luxembourg and Amsterdam. The announcement comes as little surprise, however, after the Qatar investors announced earlier in August they intended to acquire a 17 percent stake in Volkswagen. That will make it the third biggest shareholder in VW after the state of Lower Saxony where VW is located and the Porsche and Piech families which control Porsche. The families are expected to wind up holding about 30 to 40 percent of the new combined Volkswagen-Porsche company. Earlier this month, Volkswagen approved absorbing Porsche into VW by the end of 2011, with an initial 42 percent stake to be acquired this year for euro3.3 billion ($4.72 billion). Volkswagen will then in turn buy Porsche SE, the Salzburg-Austria based automobile trading business, for euro3.55 billion starting in 2011. The purchase follows the UAE's Aabar Investment acquisition in March of a 10 percent stake of Daimler AG, famed for its Mercedes-Benz brand, indicating continuing Gulf interest in the European automotive sector despite the economic downturn. - AP Volkswagen shares were down 1.54 percent at 136.82 euros on the Frankfurt stock market at 1400 GMT.
