Rimac could take over Porsche’s stake in Bugatti Rimac

In 2021, the Croatian electric sports car manufacturer Rimac took over the majority of the luxury brand Bugatti from the VW Group. The remaining 45 per cent are held by the VW subsidiary Porsche, and Rimac would now like to take over these shares.

The joint venture Bugatti Rimac, founded in 2021, is valued at just over one billion euros. Rimac has now submitted a preliminary offer for the 45 per cent stake from Porsche, Bloomberg reported. According to insiders, Rimac may team up with other investors to purchase the shares.

However, the discussions are still at an early stage and it is unclear whether a transaction will take place, the report continued. A spokesperson for Rimac refused to comment on the rumours to Bloomberg. A Porsche spokesperson, on the other hand, said Porsche is continuously ‘potential optimizations for its shareholdings and works closely together with its business partners and co-investors.’ However, he declined to comment on a possible offer from Rimac.

What makes this so interesting is that as recently as December 2024, Porsche itself is said to have negotiated with Rimac about taking over the majority of the joint venture. At the time, it was possible that an additional investor would join to buy out Rimac. Rimac founder Mate Rimac confirmed in December that there had been talks about a possible transaction, adding that the company was doing so well that he would like Rimac to actually increase its shares instead of selling them.

However, Bloomberg now quotes insiders as saying that Porsche has postponed its priorities for the time being after the departure of several top executives and in the face of a difficult automotive market. Whether Porsche or Rimac will ultimately obtain a majority stake in the joint venture, or whether an external buyer will be found for Bugatti Rimac, has not yet been decided.

Even if Rimac were to take over the Bugatti Rimac joint venture completely, Porsche would still retain an indirect interest. Even before the founding of the Bugatti Rimac joint venture, Porsche was already one of the most important investors in the Rimac Group: the VW brand took a 10 per cent stake in Rimac in 2018 and now holds about 20 per cent of the Croatian company. Other major investors include Softbank, Goldman Sachs and Hyundai. However, the largest shareholder is founder Mate Rimac.

bloomberg.com