Former 'Mr Volkswagen' Ferdinand Piech in talks to pull stake

Volkswagen's powerful ex-chairman Ferdinand Piech, credited with its rise from the brink of bankruptcy to world leader status, is in talks to sell his stake in the group, its holding company said today.

The 79-year-old owns 14.7 per cent in Porsche SE, which in turn controls the Volkswagen group with 52 per cent of its voting rights.

The stake owned by the former 'Mr VW' is worth more than 1 billion euros ($ 1.07 billion), according to Spiegel Online, which first flagged the talks and said they followed differences with Porsche's founding families.

The negotiations cover the sale of "the major part" of Piech's Porsche SE holding to the Porsche and Piech families, which have first dibs on the purchase, Porsche SE said in a statement.

"At present, it is still unforeseeable whether the aforesaid changes in the shareholder structure of Porsche SE will in fact occur," the statement said.

Relations with the current management and the other co-owners of Volkswagen became strained after Piech claimed that company chiefs, including CEO Martin Winterkorn, knew about emissions cheating which led to the so-called 'dieselgate' scandal earlier than they admitted.

After fitting 11 million cars with devices allowing them to fool emission tests, Volkswagen in January agreed to plead guilty and pay $4.3 billion in criminal and civil fines to settle charges that it defrauded the United States and conspired to violate the Clean Air Act.