Porsche completes sale of remaining Bugatti Rimac stake, ending Volkswagen Group ties
The German carmaker booked one billion euro from the sale and will use a quarter of it to fund pension obligations.
Porsche has completed the sale of its remaining stake in Bugatti Rimac and the wider Rimac Group, cutting Bugatti's last remaining link to the Volkswagen Group. The transaction closed on 9 September, five years after Porsche and Rimac formed the joint venture that brought Bugatti under shared ownership.
Who now owns Bugatti
Bugatti Rimac was previously split 55% to Rimac Group and 45% to Porsche. Control now passes to a consortium led by US based investment firm HOF Capital, a deal that was first announced earlier this year and has now been finalised in full.
Porsche said the disposal generated one billion euro, equivalent to roughly $1.16 billion at current exchange rates. Of that sum, 250 million euro has been earmarked specifically to fund the company's pension obligations, Porsche said in its announcement of the completed sale.
The company also revised its profitability outlook on the back of the deal. Porsche now expects the net cash flow margin for its automotive business, a measure of how efficiently sales convert into cash, to reach between 5.5% and 7.5% for 2026, up from a prior forecast of 3% to 5%.
Why Porsche is selling now
The exit follows a period of financial strain at Porsche, which we cover on our Porsche company page as a German manufacturer founded in 1931 and known for the 911 and Cayenne. Porsche has discontinued the petrol powered Macan SUV and the 718 sports cars amid its electrification push.
Porsche has also faced falling sales in China, one of its most important markets, and the Bugatti stake sale is described as part of a broader plan to lift profits. That plan has already produced one concrete result: the improved 2026 cash flow margin forecast the company issued alongside the sale.
Bugatti's return to prominence happened under Volkswagen Group ownership, guided by then chief executive Ferdinand Piech's ambition to rebuild the marque as a byword for ultra luxury performance. The Veyron, the Chiron and a run of limited production specials followed, restoring Bugatti to household name status among hypercar buyers.
What the joint venture built
Porsche and Rimac formed their joint venture in 2021 specifically to pair Bugatti's heritage with Rimac's expertise in electric powertrains. That partnership produced the Tourbillon, a hypercar built around a Cosworth developed 8.3 litre V16 engine paired with three electric motors supplied by Rimac.
Production of the Tourbillon is scheduled to begin this year, marking Bugatti's newest flagship since the Chiron. Beyond that model, Bugatti has disclosed no further product plans, leaving open how the change in ownership structure might shape whatever the marque builds next.
Porsche's own automotive identity is distinct from Bugatti's hypercar positioning, built instead on high performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans sold at a different scale entirely. The Volkswagen Group's decision to let go of its Bugatti stake closes one chapter of that broader portfolio strategy.
Rimac Group, the Croatian company that now controls Bugatti outright alongside the HOF Capital led consortium, built its name on electric hypercar engineering before entering the joint venture with Porsche in 2021. It supplied the electric motor technology used in the Tourbillon.
What the sale funds at Porsche
We have tracked Porsche's approach to collaboration and portfolio decisions elsewhere this year, including its tie up with Louis Vuitton, which restored a pair of Porsche 911s with Singer as the French house's first cobranded product. That deal signalled Porsche's willingness to extend brand reach through partnership rather than ownership.
The Bugatti sale runs the other way. Porsche is not extending its footprint here but converting a five year old ownership stake into cash, with a quarter of the one billion euro proceeds directed straight at pension obligations rather than new investment.
Porsche has not disclosed what, if anything, replaces the Bugatti stake in its investment plans, nor whether further disposals are under consideration as part of the profit plan it says this sale begins. The company's statement focused on the completed transaction and the revised 2026 guidance.
For Bugatti, the practical question is what comes after the Tourbillon, now that the marque answers solely to Rimac Group and the HOF Capital consortium rather than to a joint venture partner with Volkswagen Group backing. No timeline for a successor model has been given.
Production of the Tourbillon is set to begin this year, the one concrete date attached to Bugatti's product plans at the point the ownership change took effect. Whether that launch proceeds under different strategic direction now rests with Rimac and its new backers.
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Images: Bugatti