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By Michael Steen
FRANKFURT, Oct 25 (Reuters) - German sports car maker Porsche AG said on Friday it would reward shareholders with a special dividend after posting bumper results for its 2001/2002 business year.
The company posted a 40 percent rise in full year pre-tax profit to 828.9 million euros ($811.1 million) earlier this month, reflecting strong demand for its high-margin flagship 911 model, and said it was extremely confident for 2002/2003.
Porsche said holders of the listed preference shares would receive a three euro per share basic dividend plus a special payout of 14 euros per share while the ordinary shareholders, principally the Porsche family, would receive 2.94 euros per share plus the 14 euros.
The company said this represented a 16 percent rise in basic dividends and the extra payout would cost an additional 245 million euros. It added that it could use tax credits to meet part of the costs.
"We see the one-off special dividend as recognition that many shareholders remained loyal to us in difficult times," Chief Executive Wendelin Wiedeking said in a statement.
Wiedeking, a cigar-chomping 50-year-old, took Porsche from the brink of bankruptcy during the mid-1990s to what now describes itself as the world's most profitable car company.
In 1991/1992, Porsche did not pay a dividend and in subsequent years owners of the company's more widely-held preference shares have often complained they received low dividends.
According to Reuters data, Porsche's dividend yield is just 0.54 percent, compared to 1.42 percent for luxury German carmaker BMW AG and 2.71 percent for German-U.S. car giant DaimlerChrysler AG .
Porsche's most recent financial successes have been all the more surprising as car markets around the globe have followed the economy into recession, hurting mass market manufacturers.
In a departure from Wiedeking's tried and tested formula of selling very fast, very small cars to a small number of people, the company is now seeking to increase unit sales by at least 50 percent with the launch of its Cayenne sports utility vehicle.
The Cayenne, a typical Porsche because it is the fastest SUV on the market but built on the same chassis as a Volkswagen offroader, has so far been well received, but as only the third Porsche model its long-term success will prove key.
Porsche's preference shares were trading up 0.21 percent at 480.50 euros by 1025 GMT percent compared to a 1.55 percent drop in the European automotive sector .
The dividend will be voted on at Porsche's annual shareholders' meeting in January.