VW moves on MAN Scania tie-up

German carmaker Volkswagen has formally launched its bid for MAN to create Europe’s biggest truckmaker and take on market leaders Daimler and Volvo.

VW wants to combine MAN with Sweden’s Scania, which it already controls, initially raising its stake to around 40 percent of MAN’s voting shares for its current 30 percent.

It will then have to convince competition regulators to let the deal go ahead.

VW made a deliberately low offer of 95 euros per ordinary share for MAN on Tuesday, 1.8 percent below the current market value of 96.69 euros per share.

Under German takeover rules if few investors accept the mandatory offer, which values MAN at about 13.8 billion euros, VW can then go on to gradually buy up shares in the market.

Eventually, VW envisages having a combined trucks group which saves about 400 million euros of costs per year, mainly by bundling procurement.

MAN said it saw industrial logic and potential savings in a deal with Volkswagen, adding it would further comment on the offer within two weeks.

Copyright © 2012 euronews