WOLFSBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Porsche SE (>> Porsche Automobil Holding SE), the main shareholder in Volkswagen (>> Volkswagen AG), will not dispute the paying of a dividend at next week's VW annual shareholder meeting, a spokesman for the luxury carmaker said on Thursday.
Members of Porsche SE, a holding company for the Porsche and Piech families, had spoken out against Volkswagen's proposal to pay a dividend for 2015 when it is still grappling with the fallout of its emissions test-cheating scandal.
But the spokesman said Porsche SE had now decided to vote in favour of the proposal by Volkswagen's boards to pay a small dividend, and had canceled a supervisory board meeting of Porsche SE that had been called for Monday to discuss it.
Germany's Bild tabloid cited Wolfgang Porsche and Hans Michel Piech as saying the dividend was no longer a contentious issue following Volkswagen's setting out of a strategy to take it to 2025 earlier on Thursday.
"The issue is off the table," the two Volkswagen supervisory board members told the newspaper.
Piech and Porsche told the newspaper they had advocated the lowest possible dividend only to ensure Volkswagen would have sufficient funds to finance essential investments in its future and cope with its emissions scandal.
By Jan Schwartz
