BERLIN (AP):

Porsche Automobil Holding SE on Thursday reported a small net profit for the past financial year, but said it had a large pretax loss because of costs related to its attempted take-over of Volkswagen AG.

The pretax loss was €4.4 billion (US$6.6 billion) for the year that ended July 31, compared with a pretax profit the previous year of €8.6 billion, and was driven by write-downs for the value of options on Volkswagen shares, the company said.

"This impairment loss was recorded at the end of the reporting period and paved the way for the sale of the substantial part of the options to the emirate of Qatar," it said in a statement.

The result "was also influenced by the hidden reserves and liabilities identified in the course of the purchase price allocation for the shareholding in Volkswagen," it said.

Porsche said it had a small full-year net profit available for distribution of €8.23 million after drawing €1 billion from revenue reserves. That will allow it to pay out a small dividend.

The company did not give a 2007/2008 comparison figure for net profit. Its full annual report is due on November 25.

The Stuttgart-based company had warned in July that it antici-pated a pretax loss of up to €5 billion for the 2008/2009 fiscal year.

Porsche accumulated heavy debt in a failed attempt to take over larger automaker Volkswagen, with which it is now slated to merge.

Former chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking and chief financial officer Holger Haerter, who had championed the take-over drive, stepped down in July.