Volkswagen has taken control of Scania, buying both Investor and Wallenberg Foundation stakes in the company. The move paves the way for an alliance with MAN.
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Volkswagen acquired the stakes, representing 30.62% of Scania’s voting rights, for SKR200 a share, a total of SKR17.6bn ($US2.86bn). VW now has 68.6% of the voting rights, and 37.73% of the capital.
In a statement Volkswagen said the move is “an important step towards clarifying the long-term shareholder structure of Scania”.
Chairman Martin Winterkorn said: “We will support the management of Scania and its team in executing the strategy of profitable growth. Investor and Volkswagen have worked successfully together for eight years and during this time Scania has achieved record sales and profit. Both parties believe that this transaction is in the best interest of Scania and Sweden.”
Scania management has resisted a takeover by MAN, but Volkswagen is keen to see a three-way merger of the two truck companies with its own South American truck operations.
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By GlobalDataReuters quoted one industry source as saying that Volkswagen does intend to bring MAN into a cooperation accord with Scania, although MAN was not involved in the Scania sale talks.
Volkswagen said it would keep Scania as a separate premium brand and does not foresee any structural changes that would adversely affect employees. It said the continuity of Scania’s management team has always been a key priority.
Furthermore, Volkswagen intends to maintain the headquarters and the engineering centres in Södertälje. “We will continue to act as a responsible shareholder in the company in line with Swedish corporate governance practice and ensure that Scania’s board of directors is comprised of strong and well qualified members including strong independent representation,” said Winterkorn.
He was specifically addressing the concerns of Scania management which had resisted a merger with MAN in a personality clash/power struggle between the chief executives of the two companies. There were also concerns that major decision-making would move to Germany where both MAN and Volkswagen are headquartered.
