Volkswagen set to buy rest of Porsche share

Seeking to become the world's biggest carmaker, Germany's Volkswagen has agreed Wednesday to buy the remaining 50.1% stake in the sports carmaker Porsche by August 1, VolksWagen announced late Wednesday. Volkswagen will pay 4.46 Billion euros ($5.6 Billion) plus one Volkswagen's common share to acquire the stake. The deal is likely to reduce costs and boost Volkswagen's earnings. "The accelerated integration will allow us to start implementing a joint strategy for Porsche's automotive business more quickly and to realize key joint projects more rapidly," chief financial officer of Volkswagen, Hans Dieter Poetsch said. Earlier in 2009, Volkswagen had acquired a 49.9% stake in Porsche. There were plans that both of them would merge by the end of 2011, but one of the obstacles that hindered the move was the probability they would pay more than 1Billion euros in taxes.