Porsche SE, the holding company that owns 51 percent of Volkswagen’s common shares, recorded a profit in its shortened 2010 business year on gains from VW and profit from the Porsche sports-car business.

Net income for the August to December period was 1.3 billion euros ($1.8 billion), the Stuttgart, Germany-based company said in an e-mailed statement today. The profit was the result of 969 million euros in earnings from Wolfsburg, Germany- based VW and 106 million euros from the Porsche AG carmaking operations, reported Bloomberg.

Porsche SE, which not provide a five-month comparison figure, had a loss of 454 million euros for the 12 months ended July 2010. The results released today didn’t include any revenue or profit figures for the carmaking business.

Porsche and VW agreed to combine in August 2009 following a failed attempt by the sports-car maker to acquire its larger rival. The merger may be delayed until next year because of German investigations into allegations of share-price manipulation. The probability that the merger will be completed in the planned timeframe has declined to 50 percent from 70 percent, Porsche said today.

Porsche’s preferred shares gained 28 cents, 0.5 percent, to close at 55.98 euros in Frankfurt, valuing the company at 9.8 billion euros.