In its shortened 2010 business year, Porsche SE profited on gains from Volkswagen AG and it also profited from the Porsche sports car business. Porsche SE is the holding company that owns 51 percent of VW’s common shares. The company recently said net income for the August 2011 to December 2011 period was EUR1.3 billion ($1.8 billion). The profit resulted from EUR969 million in earnings from VW and EUR106 million from the Porsche AG carmaking operations. Without providing a five-month comparison figure, Porsche SE had a loss of EUR454 million for the 12 months ended July 2010, says Bloomberg.

In August 2009, VW and Porsche SE agreed to merge after a failed attempt by the sports-car maker to acquire its larger rival. The merger could be delayed until 2012 due to German investigations into allegations of share-price manipulation. Porsche SE recently said the likelihood that the merger will be completed in the planned timeframe has declined to 50 percent from 70 percent.