Volkswagen on Tuesday said it would buy 49.9 per cent in Porsche’s sports car business by the end of the year, a larger stake than originally planned, as Europe’s largest carmaker said that overall sales in the third quarter had been “very good”.

VW said that it had agreed with Porsche to buy just under half of its sports car business for €3.9bn ($5.8bn) “in a first step towards an integrated automotive group”.