Porsche drops plans for New York listing

The German sports car maker Porsche yesterday dropped plans to apply for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange because it did not agree with the new US rules that force chief executives to swear to the accuracy of their company's accounts.

"Considerations of an additional listing in the United States were put aside by the Porsche management board," the company said. "The decisive factor was a US law introduced this summer under which the chief executive and financial officer of a company listed in the US must swear to the accuracy of company accounts and are liable to high fines or 20 years in prison for giving false information."

Porsche said it did not believe the rules were compatible with German law, which already required company accounts to be accurate and gave the whole management board, the supervisory board and the auditors responsibility for ensuring this was the case.

The US corporate governance rules were introduced in the wake of accounting scandals including Enron and WorldCom.

Porsche, the world's most profitable car company, only lists its non-voting preference shares in Germany and has been resistant to moves enforcing greater financial transparency.