Issuer: Porsche International Financing plc
Amount: Dm200 million
Launched: April 23 1997
Lead manager: Deutsche Morgan Grenfell
"It was our idea," says Porsche's finance director Holger P Härter. Any finance chief would say the same about his company's bond issue, but in this case it must be true. No banker would have come up with this scheme to sell bonds as status symbols.
This inaugural bond issue from the German luxury car maker was marketed as the latest accessory for the bondholder who has everything. "If you can't have a Porsche in the garage, at least you can buy the bond," says Manfred Ludwig, head of syndicate at Merrill Lynch in Frankfurt, summing up the syndicate's simple sales pitch.
A more original collector's item than model cars, Porsche bonds immediately acquired their own sentimental value. Three times oversubscribed, the issue was allocated in small tickets to reach as...
