FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen will launch the biggest capital increase in Germany for many years in April, raising roughly 4 billion euros ($5.4 billion) to finance its ambitious growth plans, via the sale of some 65 million preferred shares.

Volkswagen, which already has amassed 10.6 billion euros in net cash, is embarking on a historic acquisition spree that includes announced deals worth 17.7 billion euros in equity and debt as part of a goal to overtake Toyota as the world's biggest carmaker before the decade is out.

VW had flagged as early as December its plans for a placement in the first half of this year, and finance chief Hans Dieter Poetsch said earlier this month he wanted to recoup the 4 billion euros used to buy half of Porsche SE's sports car business at the end of last year.

"The volume is in line with expectations and roughly amounts to what they need for Porsche," NordLB analyst Frank Schwope said, despite a seven percent decline in the stock yesterday.

Poetsch said in a statement that the move represented "an important prerequisite for a continuously healthy financing structure" ahead of his plans to subsume heavily indebted Porsche SE into Volkswagen.

Europe's largest carmaker expects to announce on Friday the offer price, subscription ratio and the final offer volume of new shares — which will carry full dividend rights for this year.

Pre-placement of the non-voting stock had already begun for institutional investors, it said, while subscriptions for the new shares are expected to run from March 31 to April 13.

Major shareholders, including Porsche SE, VW's home German state of Lower Saxony and Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, have all agreed to assign and transfer their subscription rights to the syndicate banks, VW said.

The Gulf state, which owns 17 percent of the voting stock, already sold 25 million preference shares or about a quarter of the stock currently in circulation, for 60 euros a share in early November. Ever since the unexpected placement, investors have feared it would unload the remaining 25 million shares it holds after its lock-up period expired on December 31, helping prevent the stock from trading back above 70 euros.

"Qatar Holding has reserved the right to participate in the pre-placement of the preference shares to be issued in the capital increase," the sovereign wealth fund said yesterday.

VW's preferred shares closed at 72.95 euros on Monday, implying it could sell the 65 million at a price of 62 euros each for a grand total of 4.0 billion euros. Yesterday afternnon, they were trading down 5.8 percent at 68.7 euros.