Porsche AG announced on April 24th 2026 that it had agreed to sell its equity stakes in both Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Group to an international consortium led by New York-based HOF Capital, with Abu Dhabi’s BlueFive Capital coming in as the largest single investor. The transaction agreements were signed the same day and, subject to regulatory clearances, completion is expected before the end of 2026.
The move ends nearly three decades of Volkswagen Group influence over the Bugatti name, which had been revived under VW’s stewardship in 1998 under Ferdinand Piëch and produced the Veyron, Chiron and Tourbillon over a quarter century of ownership. Bugatti Rimac was established in 2021 as a joint venture between Porsche and Croatian hypercar maker Rimac Group, with Rimac holding 55% and Porsche the remaining 45%. Porsche additionally held a 20.6% stake in Rimac Group itself, both of which it has now agreed to divest in full.
The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. The parties have agreed to keep them confidential, save where disclosure becomes necessary under applicable financial reporting obligations. For context, Bloomberg reported last year that Mate Rimac, Rimac’s founder, had previously made a preliminary offer that valued the Bugatti Rimac joint venture at slightly above €1 billion (approximately $1.1 billion).
“We will focus Porsche on the core business.”
Dr Michael Leiters, CEO of Porsche AG
Key elements of the transaction:
- Porsche divests its 45% stake in Bugatti Rimac
- Porsche divests its 20.6% stake in Rimac Group
- Buyer: consortium led by HOF Capital, with BlueFive Capital as the largest investor
- Additional consortium members: institutional investors across the US and EU
- Financial terms: confidential
- Indicative valuation reference (per Bloomberg, prior offer): >€1 billion for the joint venture
- Signing date: 24 April 2026
- Expected completion: before end of 2026, subject to regulatory clearances
The consortium: who is acquiring Porsche’s stakes?
HOF Capital: A New York-headquartered investment firm co-founded by Onsi Sawiris, a scion of the Sawiris family, one of Egypt’s most prominent industrial dynasties. HOF manages more than $10 billion in assets and invests across venture capital and growth equity, with a portfolio that spans frontier technology and consumer brands (its previous investments include Anthropic and SpaceX). Following completion, HOF Capital will become the largest external shareholder in Rimac Group alongside founder Mate Rimac.
BlueFive Capital: A global investment platform incorporated in Abu Dhabi Global Market, with offices in London, Manama, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Muscat and Beijing. The firm reports approximately $15 billion in assets under management and offers private equity, real estate, infrastructure and financial products to institutional and private wealth clients. BlueFive was launched in November 2024 by Hazem Ben-Gacem, formerly a long-serving senior executive at the alternative investment firm Investcorp. Notably, BlueFive’s investment is reported to sit only at the Bugatti Rimac level rather than at Rimac Group level.
Institutional co-investors: A group of institutional investors based across the United States and European Union join the consortium, though their identities have not been individually disclosed.
The structural mechanics of the divestiture
Unlike a typical public-company acquisition, this transaction does not require shareholder votes or proxy solicitations on the seller side, since Porsche is divesting its own minority equity holdings rather than the public Porsche AG entity itself being acquired. Equally, there is no tender offer or scheme of arrangement to consider. The transaction is structured as a privately negotiated share purchase, with the relevant transaction agreements executed on signing.
That said, the deal is subject to a number of customary closing conditions, the most significant of which are regulatory clearances.
The barriers that need to be overcome before the deal can complete:
Merger control and antitrust clearances
- Given the cross-border footprint of the parties (Porsche in Germany, Rimac in Croatia, Bugatti in France, BlueFive in the UAE and HOF Capital in the US), the deal is expected to require notifications across multiple competition authorities. The European Commission, the German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) and Croatian competition authority (AZTN) are likely to be among the relevant regulators, alongside other jurisdictions in which the parties have qualifying turnover.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) screening
- The presence of investors from the US and the UAE acquiring stakes in European luxury automotive and advanced battery technology businesses is the kind of profile that triggers FDI review under several European regimes. Germany’s investment screening regime under the Außenwirtschaftsverordnung (AWV) is a strong candidate, as is the Croatian FDI regime, particularly given Rimac Technology’s status as a Tier-1 automotive technology supplier with capabilities in batteries, electronics and powertrain systems with potential dual-use applications.
Sanctions and export-control review
- Although neither HOF nor BlueFive are subject to relevant restrictive measures, transactions of this profile typically warrant a careful sanctions and export-control diligence exercise, particularly where battery and powertrain technology sit within the asset base.
No public shareholder approval required
- Porsche AG is itself a listed company on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, but the divestiture of these minority stakes does not, on the information available, appear to meet the threshold for a Holzmüller / Gelatine-style mandatory shareholder approval at the parent level. Porsche’s own shares fell 1.6% in early Frankfurt trading following the announcement.
The law firms involved in the deal
LINKLATERS: Acting for Porsche, its longstanding client. The team is led by Düsseldorf corporate/M&A partner Andreas Zenner, who has previously advised Porsche on a number of deals including its 2023 acquisition of corporate and IT consultancy MHP and its 2017 acquisition of software company PTV Planung Transport Verkehr. The instruction reflects the depth of Linklaters’ German automotive M&A practice and its decades-long relationship with the Porsche and Volkswagen group.
WHITE & CASE: Acting for Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Group, with the team headed by London M&A partners Daniel Turgel and Angus Nunn. White & Case has built a strong reputation in cross-border European private M&A and has acted on a number of high-profile automotive matters in recent years.
DLA PIPER: Acting for the acquiring consortium, with the team led by corporate partners Tim Lake in Birmingham and Murad Daghles in Düsseldorf. The firm’s positioning across the UK, Germany and the Middle East makes it well suited to the geographic footprint of the HOF Capital and BlueFive Capital combination.
The line-up across the three sides (German-led on the Porsche side, London-led on the target side, and a UK and German team on the buy side) is a recognisable pattern in European private M&A involving Gulf and US capital, where the seller is a German listed corporate.
The strategic rationale: why is Porsche selling?
The divestiture cannot be understood without reference to Porsche’s recent financial performance. The German automaker reported a 93% slump in operating profit in 2025, falling from €5.64 billion in 2024 to just €0.41 billion. The deterioration has been driven by a combination of factors: weakening demand in China, higher US tariffs, billions in one-off charges relating to a strategic pivot away from a fully electric model strategy, and broader margin compression across the European luxury automotive sector.
Michael Leiters, who took over as CEO of Porsche AG at the start of 2026, has committed to a programme of streamlining the management structure, cutting hierarchies and bureaucracy, and refocusing capital on Porsche’s core sports car business. The Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Group stakes, financially significant but strategically peripheral, were obvious candidates for disposal in that context.
For Rimac Group, the transaction marks a step-change in control. Mate Rimac, who had already publicly expressed interest in acquiring Porsche’s stake, gains operational control of Bugatti Rimac and welcomes HOF Capital and BlueFive as long-term financial partners. Hyundai retains a small minority stake in Rimac Group, but Mate Rimac’s effective grip on the combined Bugatti, Rimac and Rimac Technology platform is meaningfully strengthened.
For HOF Capital and BlueFive, the deal gives them control of an iconic luxury brand and a Tier-1 electric vehicle technology business in the same transaction. The combination is unusual: heritage hypercar engineering on the Bugatti side, and advanced battery, powertrain and electronics work on the Rimac Technology side.
Questions to Ask:
Will the cross-border regulatory clearance package, particularly FDI review in Germany and Croatia, close cleanly before year-end, or could it slip into 2027?
Does Porsche’s exit signal the start of a broader Volkswagen Group restructuring, with further non-core disposals to follow?
And with Mate Rimac now in full operational control of Bugatti Rimac and HOF Capital’s brand-led, growth-equity capital behind him, will the next chapter of Bugatti lean more heavily on technological showcasing? Or, as some commentators have suggested, will it lean towards a higher-volume crossover or SUV product to underwrite the brand’s economics?
Table of Contents
Sources
https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2026/company/porsche-bugatti-rimac-stakes-42221.html
By George Hocking
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