Rimac Mulls Buying Porsche’s Stake in Hypercar Joint Venture Bugatti

(Bloomberg) -- Croatian sports-carmaker Rimac Group is interested in buying out Porsche AG’s stake in their joint venture Bugatti Rimac, according to people familiar with the matter.

Closely held Rimac recently made a preliminary offer for Porsche’s 45% stake that valued the joint venture at slightly over €1 billion ($1.1 billion), said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. Rimac could team up with other investors, the people said.

Deliberations are at an early stage and may not lead to a transaction, according to the people. A representative for Rimac declined to comment.

Porsche continuously evaluates potential optimizations for its shareholdings and works closely together with its business partners and co-investors, a spokesperson said, declining to comment on Rimac’s offer for its stake in the joint venture.

Porsche shares rose as much as 1.1% in Frankfurt. The stock is still down around a fifth this year.

Rimac and Porsche set up Bugatti Rimac in 2021 to make so-called hypercars under its namesake brands. Previously, Porsche considered trying to buy out Rimac from the joint venture, some of the people said, but the German carmaker for now has shifted its priorities after the departure of some top executives in light of a challenging automotive market.

Porsche is trying to reset its strategy after struggling with supply chain disruptions, falling sales in China and lower-than-expected demand for electric models. The company has walked back its EV targets and intends to spend €800 million to develop more models powered by fossil fuels.

Mate Rimac founded the automaker in a garage in 2009 after converting his BMW E30 into an all-electric battery powered race car. The company has since focused on building all-electric hypercars and manufacturing components for other automotive companies. Its latest Rimac Nevera model has an estimated starting price of about $2.2 million.

In 2022, Rimac raised €500 million from investors including SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s private equity arm. Porsche and InvestIndustrial also participated in that funding round. Mate Rimac remains the Croatian carmaker’s largest shareholder.

(Updates with Porsche shares in fifth paragraph.)

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