Martin Winterkorn, CEO of German carmaker Volkswagen, left, his counterpart of German sports car maker Porsche AG, Matthias Mueller, third from left, and Lower Saxony’s Minister President David Mc Allister, second from left, pose next to a Porsche Boxter car on an assembly line on the first day of the car’s official production at the Volkswagen plant in Osnabrueck yesterday. A German regional court stopped two investor lawsuits against Porsche SE, sending a discouraging signal to claimants still seeking just over €4 billion in damages in Germany. Some German and US investors say that throughout 2008 Porsche camouflaged its plans to acquire VW and instead secretly piled up its holding. In March 2008, the sportscar maker dismissed as ‘speculation’ talk that it intended to take over the much-bigger VW, which builds more cars in a week than Porsche does in a year. Seven months later, Porsche said it controlled 42.6 per cent of VW’s common shares and held options for another 31.5 per cent of the stock it had not disclosed previously. Porsche’s statement caused VW shares to surge to €1,005 within days.

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