QATAR Holding, the investment arm of the Gulf state's sovereign wealth fund, has sold its 10 percent stake in Porsche SE to the luxury carmaker's family shareholders, four years after it first invested in the firm.

Qatar Holding, which owns stakes in some of the world's largest companies, said it sold the common shares in the automaker to the Porsche and Piech families. It did not disclose the value of the transaction.

The investment arm said it remained committed to the Integrated Automotive Group which includes Volkswagen and Porsche via its 17 percent stake in VW. Europe's largest automaker last year sealed the purchase of Porsche's car-making business after a merger failed in a tangle of legal disputes.

"This transaction results as a logical step after the creation of the Integrated Automotive Group between Volkswagen and Porsche AG as finalized in 2012," Qatar Holding said in the statement.

Neither party gave any details of the price paid for the stake.

Porsche was forced to sell a 10 percent voting stake to Qatar Holding in 2009 as a way to prop up its strained finances. The Qatar sale gave outsiders a say in the debt-saddled family-controlled auto group for the first time since it started building Porsche branded cars in 1948.

Porsche's holding company, controlled by the Porsche and Piech families, still holds about 51 percent of VW common stock, making it one of three big controlling interests in the German car group.

VW, in return, now owns all of Porsche's core business, the automotive division that makes models such as the iconic 911 sports car.