VfB Stuttgart is currently very connected to Mercedes. Now Porsche is also to join the club.
(Photo: IMAGO/HMB Media)
Dusseldorf For VfB Stuttgart things have been rather bumpy recently in the Bundesliga. Sixteenth in the table last season, the Swabians were only able to stay in the first division thanks to the relegation against HSV.
The club is also not doing well financially: According to the financial figures of the German Football League (DFL), VfB closed the 2022 calendar year with a loss of a good 16 million euros. The largest item on the expenditure side were personnel costs of more than 90 million euros. In addition, a 25 million euro aid loan from Corona times and a stadium renovation are burdening the club’s coffers.
A deal that is to be announced this Tuesday should be all the more important for VfB: As the Handelsblatt learned from negotiating circles, the sports car manufacturer Porsche is to join the Stuttgart Bundesliga club as an investor. The amount of the stake and the valuation should be based on the commitment of the previous main sponsor Mercedes-Benz, say two people familiar with the deal. The competitor is also a VfB shareholder and currently holds 11.75 percent of the Vereins-AG. As an anchor investor, Porsche is to have a stake of up to ten percent in VfB. According to the insider, the valuation is around 40 million euros. All in all, Porsche is said to be willing to pay around 100 million euros for the commitment, since the people from Zuffenhausen also want to support the VfB youth center.
Porsche and VfB Stuttgart did not comment on the details of the deal. However, a press conference on the subject at VfB is scheduled for the morning. DThe participation is said to have been recorded in a “Letter of Intent” – a declaration of intent that is not legally binding.
The personal driving force behind the agreement is said to have been Porsche CFO Lutz Meschke. Porsche’s Head of Communications, Sebastian Rudolph, is largely responsible for the commitment to youth work in Stuttgart. One goal should be to anchor the luxury brand Porsche more broadly in society and thus underline the social commitment of the Dax group.
Porsche isn’t pushing for the jersey
Porsche already promotes young people in various sports under the motto “Turbo for Talents”. This includes partnerships in the youth field with the Bundesliga club RB Leipzig or the Stuttgarter Kickers.
The sports car manufacturer from Zuffenhausen was already a VfB sponsor until 2020. However, Porsche withdrew and from then on focused its commitment in the first division on the youth department of Borussia Mönchengladbach. The reason for this may also have been the dominant other sponsor of VfB: Mercedes-Benz.
The luxury brand around boss Ola Källenius is said to have been dissatisfied with the sporting performance of the club for a long time, which does not fit their own claim “The best or nothing”. The contract with the Mercedes-Benz Bank as shirt sponsor is also expiring in the next few days. A successor has not yet been announced. According to reports, however, Porsche should not push the jersey.
VfB Stuttgart had already spun off its professional business into a public limited company in 2017. In addition to the anchor investor Mercedes-Benz, the sportswear company Jako from Baden-Württemberg also has a stake in the AG.
More: Deal with Dazn: Porsche wants to bring the Bundesliga into the cockpit.