STUTTGART (dpa-AFX) - The VW holding company Porsche SE (PSE) intends to broaden its base in the future and is also targeting larger investments. "Our financial resources give us considerable scope for potential investments in further core and portfolio holdings," said CFO Johannes Lattwein on Tuesday, according to a press release. To date, the holding company of the VW-owning Porsche and Piech families has only held larger share packages in the Volkswagen Group and the sports car manufacturer with the family name, Porsche AG, as so-called "core investments".

The company has also built up smaller holdings in companies in the mobility sector. The day before, for example, the Stuttgart-based company announced that it had acquired a stake in Munich-based bus and rail portal Flix SE as part of a co-investment with Swedish financial investor EQT - although the size of the PSE investment is only in the low double-digit million range.

EQT, together with Kühne-Holding from the empire of Hamburg logistics billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne, announced at the beginning of July that it would buy 35 percent of Flix. Citing financial circles, "Handelsblatt" estimated the investment at around EUR 900 million in total at the time.

Other investments have so far only played a minor role in Porsche SE's portfolio: in addition to the valuation of the Volkswagen shares (51.9 billion euros) and those of Porsche AG (10.4 billion euros), other investments amounted to only 138 million euros as at the end of June. PSE wants to diversify this further, said a spokesman for the Group.

Chief Financial Officer Lattwein is counting on more favorable purchase prices: "The current stock market environment and the resulting overall decline in company valuations are opening up attractive opportunities for us."

The Porsche SE preference share, which is listed on the Dax, gained 0.5 percent to 38.65 euros in a stable leading index. This year, the share has lost around 17 percent of its value due to the weak performance of the automotive industry.

In the first half of the year, Porsche SE made less profit due to the problems in the VW Group. On balance, the after-tax result fell by just under 8 percent to 2.13 billion euros, as the Stuttgart-based company announced. Effects from accounting purchase price allocations at the investment in the sports car manufacturer Porsche AG had a positive impact. By contrast, the investment result in the Volkswagen Group fell. Reported net profits fell at both Volkswagen and Porsche AG in the first half of the year.

Porsche SE was able to reduce its net debt to 5.0 billion euros by the middle of the year. At the end of March, it had stood at 5.8 billion. The company benefited in particular from the dividends received from VW and Porsche AG.

The management confirmed the forecasts for after-tax earnings and net debt for the year as a whole with the figures. Together with the Volkswagen Group, PSE also lowered its earnings forecast for the year at the beginning of July and now expects a profit after tax of 3.5 to 5.5 billion euros.

Porsche SE (PSE) holds a direct stake of 12.5 percent in the sports car manufacturer Porsche AG. It also holds a majority of the voting rights in the Volkswagen Group, which in turn holds a majority stake in Porsche AG. The result at PSE is significantly influenced by the two core shareholdings./men/mne/jha/