Porsche sells Bugatti and Rimac stakes for €1 billion, exits hypercar alliance

€1 billion for two stakes

Porsche announced that regulators had approved the transaction agreed in April and that the sale of the stakes had been completed. The company will receive approximately €1 billion in total.

The amount covers two investments: Porsche’s 45% stake in Bugatti Rimac and an approximately 21% stake in its parent company, Rimac Group. Porsche’s official announcement does not disclose the individual sale price of either stake.

Bugatti Rimac’s ownership structure was created in 2021, when Porsche and Rimac Group formed a joint venture to manage the legendary French marque. Rimac Group received 55% and Porsche 45%. Porsche had also invested in the Croatian technology company Rimac from 2018, later increasing its stake to around one-fifth. Porsche has now sold both positions at the same time.

HOF Capital gains a strong position in Rimac

The buyer group is led by New York-based HOF Capital. The investor consortium includes BlueFive Capital as a major investor, as well as additional institutional investors from the US and Europe.

Following the transaction, Rimac Group will retain its 55% control of Bugatti Rimac. HOF Capital itself will acquire 23.5% of Rimac Group and become the company’s largest shareholder alongside Mate Rimac.

Porsche’s former direct 45% stake in Bugatti Rimac will also pass to the HOF-led consortium. Mate Rimac is therefore not giving up control of Bugatti. On the contrary, Porsche’s exit concentrates the company’s strategic management even more clearly around Rimac and its new financial partners.

Porsche currently needs the money more than a Bugatti stake

Porsche will use €250 million of the sale proceeds to provide additional funding for pension obligations. The remaining cash inflow will directly improve the company’s financial position in 2026.

As a result of the transaction, Porsche raised its 2026 net cash flow margin forecast for its automotive business from 3–5% to 5.5–7.5%.

That says quite a lot about the motive behind the sale. Bugatti Rimac was an exciting technological and strategic investment for Porsche, but in the current situation, €1 billion in available cash is more valuable than a minority stake in a hypercar manufacturer.

Porsche itself describes the transaction as part of its “Sportwagenschmiede '35” strategy and its desire to focus on its core business.

Porsche and Rimac’s relationship began on a much smaller scale

Porsche first invested in Rimac in 2018, when the Croatian company was not yet Bugatti’s partner and was not as important a supplier of electric technology to major carmakers as it is today.

In Porsche’s capital markets materials, Rimac Group was already valued at more than €2 billion. Porsche’s stake was approximately 20% at the time.

This helps put today’s €1 billion transaction into context, but it does not allow Bugatti Rimac’s precise market value to be derived. Today’s €1 billion includes both Porsche’s direct Bugatti Rimac stake and its stake in Rimac Group, which in turn owns 55% of Bugatti Rimac and controls the Rimac Technology business.

In other words, the consortium is acquiring both direct influence over Bugatti and a position in Rimac’s technology business in a single transaction.

Bugatti has changed fundamentally in five years

The 2021 agreement between Porsche and Rimac came at a time when Bugatti’s future posed a rather uncomfortable question within the Volkswagen Group. The Chiron and its 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16 were engineering monsters, but their technology did not fit particularly well with the group’s electrification strategy.

Rimac offered a way out.

Bugatti’s new Tourbillon shows where the partnership has taken the marque. Instead of a W16, the car uses a naturally aspirated 8.3-litre V16 engine combined with three electric motors. Total system output reaches 1,324 kW, while the 25 kWh battery also enables electric driving.

The Tourbillon is essentially proof that Bugatti was able to enter the hybrid era after the Chiron without becoming just another silent electric hypercar.

Porsche is therefore leaving the company at a point when the foundations of Bugatti’s next technological era are already in place.

The balance of power is shifting in Europe’s sports-car industry

The transaction is also notable for the European automotive industry more broadly. Bugatti had belonged to the Volkswagen Group since 1998. The creation of Bugatti Rimac in 2021 weakened the direct connection to Germany, but Porsche’s 45% stake still kept one foot in the door for the Volkswagen Group.

Now that foot is being withdrawn as well.

Porsche’s exit effectively marks the end of the Volkswagen Group’s Bugatti era of more than a quarter of a century. Bugatti’s future is now linked to Croatia’s Rimac and to US and international capital.

For Porsche, the movement is in the opposite direction at the same time. The company must simultaneously deal with a weakening Chinese market, slower-than-expected EV adoption and the technological restructuring of its model range. In such circumstances, selling non-core investments is entirely logical.

There is little romance in it, but a balance sheet knows no romance.

Mate Rimac can now show whether the Bugatti model works without Porsche

Porsche’s role in the birth of Bugatti Rimac should not be underestimated. The Germans helped create a structure in which Rimac’s electric technology and Bugatti’s hypercar expertise could develop under one roof.

Five years later, the company must manage without Porsche capital and a direct shareholding.

The €1 billion from HOF Capital’s consortium at least shows that investors still consider the combination of Rimac and Bugatti valuable. In addition to its stake, HOF will receive three seats on the boards of Rimac Group and Bugatti Rimac, so this is not a passive financial investment.

For Porsche, the transaction is also a very pragmatically timed exit. The company invested in Rimac before its rise into one of Europe’s most notable electric powertrain technology companies, took part in reshaping Bugatti’s future and now sells its positions for approximately €1 billion.

Bugatti Tourbillon’s 1,324 kW is undoubtedly the more exciting number. Porsche’s chief financial officer probably prefers the billion for now.