German carmaker Volkswagen pushed ahead with a plan to combine its MAN AG and Scania truckmaking affiliates on Monday with a bid to acquire more shares in MAN. VW chairman Ferdinand Piech, who wants to create Europe's biggest truckmaker to compete with world leader Daimler and number two Volvo, has been hampered by anti-trust issues and resistance from Swedish group Scania.
VW already owns a controlling stake in Scania and by increasing its holding in German group MAN above 30 percent, from 29.9 percent, it triggered a mandatory offer. MAN said it would examine the offer, and expected to continue "extremely constructive strategic discussions" with both VW and Scania. If VW's 95 euros per share offer is rejected by shareholders as too low, German rules allow VW to gradually buy up MAN shares rather than shell out for all of its stock at once, a method recently used by Spanish construction group ACS in its take-over of German rival Hochtief. VW's offer values MAN at about 13.8 billion euros ($19.8 billion), a level which is seen as unlikely to spark great shareholder interest.
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