Porsche ditches Bugatti as tensions with Mate Rimac come to a head
Mate Rimac joins forces with investment firm to take full control of hypercar company
After five years, Porsche and Bugatti Rimac have gone their separate ways, with the German sports car and SUV company selling its stake in the French-Croation firm to American-based HOF Capital for an undisclosed sum, rumoured to be in the region of €1bn. The deal will see the investment firm become the largest shareholder in Rimac Group alongside Rimac founder Mate Rimac.
Bugatti Rimac was created in 2021 when Volkswagen Group sold its stake in Bugatti, with Rimac taking a 55 per cent share and Porsche the remaining 45 per cent. Porsche also held a 20.6 per cent stake in holding company Rimac Group.
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Under the terms of the new deal, Rimac Group will take full operating control of Bugatti Rimac with HOF Capital and its largest investor Blue Five focussing on strategic growth.
Porsche’s investment in Bugatti and Rimac was concluded at a time when the Germany company was under the stewardship of Oliver Blume, the much maligned CEO who was also running Volkswagen in tandem. Sources close to the matter suggest friction between Rimac and Porsche had begun to form due to a perceived reluctance to support the Croatian engineer’s vision to evolve Bugatti in the direction customers and the market wanted. Rimac famously told Bugatti that the replacement for the Chiron could and should not be any of the EV hypercars that had already been proposed due to the lack of demand and interest. This was at a time when VW and Porsche were all in on electrifying its entire model line. In 2025 Mate Rimac had expressed an interest to buy Porsche’s stake.
Since then, Blume has stood back from Porsche and former McLaren CEO Michael Leiters has taken the helm, although it is understood the decision had been taken for Porsche to sell its stake long before he took up the role. Commenting on the sale, Leiters said: ‘In setting up the joint venture Bugatti Rimac together with Rimac Group, we successfully laid the foundation for Bugatti’s future. And as an early-stage investor of Rimac Group, Porsche made a significant contribution to developing Rimac Technology into an established Tier-1 automotive technology company. Now, with the sale of our stake, we demonstrate that we will focus Porsche on the core business. We would like to thank Mate Rimac and his team for the constructive and trusting cooperation over the past years.’
Mate Rimac said of the deal: ‘Porsche has been a crucial partner, and we are deeply grateful for their role in establishing Bugatti Rimac. With the strong foundations their support has provided, we now have a structure that allows us to execute even faster on our long-term visions. We look forward to our collaboration with our new partners.’
Bugatti is expected to deliver the first of the 250 Tourbillons later this year.
