Porsche denies report of VW deal

Porsche SE denied yesterday reports that its main shareholders planned to sell the group's sports car business to its Volkswagen unit as a way to relieve Porsche's debt burden.

"This is nonsense," said spokesman Anton Hunger. "If this were the case then we would have to publish a statement because other shareholders would be affected." He added that no such statement was being worked on.

The Bloomberg news agency, citing two people familiar with the matter, reported that the Porsche and Piech families planned to sell the sports car business and their eastern European dealer network to VW, Europe's biggest carmaker.