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 The most recent lawsuit forms part of a legal campaign being waged
by hedge funds in various courts across the world, seeking to recoup
money which was lost by betting on a decline of Volkswagen's share
price in 2008.
On Sunday, Porsche dismissed the most recent lawsuit, which was
lodged at a Frankfurt regional court, as "unfounded". Ferdinand
Piech and Wolfgang Porsche were not immediately available for
comment.
A spokesman for Elliott Associates declined to comment.
"Porsche SE and its supervisory board members will defend themselves
with all available legal means," Porsche said on Sunday, adding that
the lawsuit in Frankfurt was no different to a separate lawsuit
already pending in Hanover.
The funds have accused Porsche of engineering a "massive short
squeeze" in October 2008 by quietly buying nearly all freely traded
ordinary VW shares in a bid to take over the company, despite
publicly stating it had no plans to do so.
Porsche's attempt to buy up much-larger rival VW ultimately failed,
but hedge funds are still suing the Stuttgart-based company and its
managers for alleged market manipulation. Porsche says the
allegations are unfounded.
Piech and Porsche are both members of the clan which owns Porsche
SE, and hedge funds argue that as supervisory board members, they
were informed about moves to buy up a VW stake.
Piech was chief executive of VW before becoming chairman of its
supervisory board.
In March 2008, Porsche SE dismissed as "speculation" talk that it
intended to take over VW. Seven months later Porsche SE revealed it
held 42.6 percent of VW's common shares as well as controlling
another 31.5 percent via financial instruments.
When Porsche revealed it had amassed control of roughly
three-quarters of the shares in Volkswagen Group, shares in the
Wolfsburg-based carmaker soared to 1,005 euros, briefly making it
the world's biggest company by market value.
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Hedge funds which had bet on a decline in the VW stock price made
massive losses, prompting them to sue in various courts.
In December 2012, a New York judge dismissed a case brought by hedge
funds including Glenhill Capital LP, David Einhorn's Greenlight
Capital LP and Chase Coleman's Tiger Global LP, arguing the state
was the wrong place to bring such a lawsuit, saying instead that the
case was more appropriate for Germany.
Hedge funds have since pressed their case against Porsche's
management and supervisory board in courts in Stuttgart,
Braunschweig, Hanover and now in Frankfurt.
Porsche SE's attempts to buy VW backfired and pushed it to
near-bankruptcy. Instead of buying VW, the company ended up selling
its sports car business, Porsche AG, to VW.
German weekly magazine Der Spiegel was first to report that hedge
funds are seeking damages from Ferdinand Piech and Wolfgang Porsche.
(Reporting by Edward Taylor Ilona
Wissenbach and Jan Schwartz; editing by Catherine Evans)
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