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Porsche SE's Oct. 2008 notification, in which it declared that
it had already secured almost three quarters of Volkswagen
through purchases and option transactions, was not grossly
misleading or false, Judge Matthias Wiese said in his ruling.
Hedge funds and private investors accused Porsche's management
of concealing its true intentions prior to the Oct. 2008
announcement that made it clear it wanted to take control of the
much larger Wolfsburg-based automaker.
As a result, investors who had bet on falling prices with short
sales were caught on the wrong foot when Volkswagen's stock
price jumped to over 1,000 euros per share, briefly making it
the most valuable company in the world.
The plaintiffs, who claimed share price losses of 5.4 billion
euros ($5.27 billion), are expected to appeal. Porsche SE,
through which the Porsche and Piech families hold a majority
stake in Volkswagen, welcomed the ruling.
($1 = 1.0246 euros)
(Reporting by Jan C Schwartz; writing by Miranda Murray; editing
by Jason Neely and Elaine Hardcastle)
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