Porsche Romania, the largest vehicle importer on the local market, is separating its operations, setting up a real estate firm, to which it will transfer its land and buildings, worth almost 66 million euros. The decision comes one year after Porsche Romania separated its import from retail, setting up Porsche Inter Auto (PIA) on July 1 2007, which took over almost 800 employees, as well as control over Porsche Romania’s five dealerships. “Given that Porsche Romania has reached an advanced stage of development, where import activities are clearly distinguished from real estate activities, this separation and setting up of two separate entities is a normal course, under the group’s (Porsche Holding i.e.) structuring policy, both internationally and for each country where the group operates,” according to company information. The Porsche group intends to develop its real estate operations in Romania, via land acquisition, construction of office buildings and rental of commercial spaces. The two companies will have the same shareholders and similar stakes in both companies. Porsche GmbH will control 99.9944% of the two companies’ capital, with the remaining 0.0056% to be held by Porsche Automotive Investment GmbH.