PORSCHE AUTOMOBIL HOLDING SE STUTTGART, Germany (Reuters) - Porsche Automobil Holding SE (>> Porsche Automobil Holding SE) is facing the payment of 428 million euros (307.5 million pounds) in tax arrears this year which may shrink its net liquidity and cap dividend payouts, finance chief Hans Dieter Poetsch said on Tuesday.
A tax audit for the 2006-2009 period when Porsche SE sought to take control of much-larger Volkswagen (>> Volkswagen AG) had determined the size of arrears, Poetsch said at the company's annual press conference.
Payment of tax arrears may shrink the company's net liquidity to between 1.7 billion euros and 2.3 billion, compared with 2.27 billion in 2014, Poetsch said. There will probably be no increase in dividend payouts to shareholders for 2015.
"This is about complicated circumstances related to hedging operations," the CFO said, without being more specific.
Stuttgart-based Porsche SE also said it is aiming for net income this year between 2.8 billion euros and 3.8 billion, compared with 3 billion in 2014.
The company also said it was pondering further investment in technology firms as carmakers look for new opportunities by pushing into software businesses.
Porsche SE, which owns a majority stake in VW, has been on the lookout for investments since it sold its sportscar business to VW in 2012.
"Connectivity between cars and infrastructure is one of the key megatrends in the automotive industry," Porsche SE's Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn said. "We see a highly interesting and profitable area for future investment here."
Porsche SE, controlled by the Porsche and Piech families, bought a 10 percent stake in United States-based traffic information provider Inrix for about $55 million in September.
German rival Daimler (>> Daimler AG) owns mytaxi and RideScout, two smartphone applications acquired last year to help the maker of Mercedes-Benz limousines to provide services to people who do not own cars.
(Writing by Andreas Cremer; Editing by David Goodman and David Holmes)
By Ilona Wissenbach
