Shares in Porsche (P911:ETR) have made a steady start after the German sports car maker listed shares in Frankfurt on 29 September 2022.

The shares climbed as high as €85.88 following the closely watched IPO (initial public offering), the largest listing in Germany in more than 25 years despite a backdrop of global economic uncertainty.

At the time of writing (4 Oct), the shares were changing hands at €83.08, having begun trading priced at €82.50.

Spun out of Volkswagen (VOWG:ETR), Porsche’s IPO valued the business at €75 billion. Volkswagen raised €19.5 billion from selling down some of its holding, with the proceeds being used to aid the company’s electrification transition. It retains a 25% stake in Porsche.

Cornerstone investors included sovereign wealth funds from Qatar, Norway and Adu Dhabi, as well as T Rowe Price.

Car companies have had mixed fortunes listing on a stock market, with rival sports car makers Ferrari (RACE:BIT) and Aston Martin Lagonda (AML) perhaps the obvious examples of how fortunes can diverge.

Ferrari listed in 2016 and has since seen its share price rally nearly 400% thanks to consistent sales growth and 25% operating margins.

Aston Martin opened at £19 at the time of its IPO, giving the company a £4.1 billion valuation, although it had been hoping for a figure as high as £5.1 billion as late as the week of the launch. By the end of the first day of trading in October 2018 the shares had fallen to £18.10, and the flotation has been an unmitigated disaster ever since.

Its shares plunged to a historic low of 114.15p earlier this week with profitable growth remaining absent. The company recently raised more money by selling new stock through a heavily discounted rights issue, which saw Chinese auto group Geely acquire a 7.6% stake in the business.

Last month Harley-Davidson (HOG:NYSE) demerged its electric motorcycle subsidiary LiveWire (LVWR:NYSE) and floated it on the US stock market via a merger with special purpose acquisition company AEA-Bridges Impact. Harley Davidson retains a 74% stake in the business.

LiveWire hopes to start delivering its new S2 Del Mar electric motorcycle from Spring 2023, promising a 110-mile range and 0-to-60 miles an hour within 3.1 seconds. The company’s flagship product is the eponymously titled LiveWire which launched in 2019.

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