VW CEO Bernd Pischetsrieder has told the Financial Times that even if MAN does increase its offer for Scania it would not be acceptable.
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Instead, Pischetsrieder wants MAN to abandon its unsolicited bid and enter into talks about a three-way alliance deal that would combine MAN, Scania and Volkswagen’s Brazilian truck operations.
In an interview with the Financial Times published on Tuesday, he said: “For me, this can’t be achieved by a takeover of Scania by MAN. I have rejected the bid and I have no intention whatsoever to change my mind.”
Pischetsrieder denied that Scania is considering a counter-bid for MAN.
He also said he has no interested in including Volkswagen’s light commercial vehicles business in a merger.
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By GlobalDataMAN is, however, determed to rescue its bid, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine today (Wednesday 27 September). MAN is proposing a two-stage process, in which Volkswagen would first sell its shares in Scania, and then bring its Brazilian truck business into the alliance, in exchange for new shares.
MAN made its original bid for Scania on 18 September, offering EUR9.6bn for Scania in a deal that would create Europe’s largest maker of commercial vehicles. Scania’s board unanimously rejected the offer the same day.
Major Scania shareholders – including Volkswagen Group and Investor AB – announced separately that they had rejected the offer.
Volkswagen said that its investment in Scania is of a “strategic nature” and that “acceptance of the takeover offer would not be in line with these industrial interests”. In addition it has criticised the fact that the offer treated A shares as the same value as B shares, even though A shares carry 10 times more voting rights.
The Swedish Investor AB group, part of the Wallenberg business empire, which controls 10.8% of Scania, said that the terms of the offer did not “reflect the fair value and potential of Scania”. The Swedish Wallenberg family controls overall, directly and indirectly, nearly 29% of Scania’s voting stock. It is now reported to be ‘open’ to offers.
Scania shares fell nearly 8% yesterday after the publication of the Pischetsrieder interview and his outright rejection of a MAN bid.
