Europe's biggest auto firm Volkswagen said Monday it had won control of Swedish truck maker Scania, just before the luxury sports car group Porsche said it was gearing up to take control of VW.
VW's decision to take control of Scania could dramatically reshape the heavy vehicle industry via an eventual merger of the Swedish group with German rival MAN, in which VW is also the leading shareholder.
VW will hold 68.60 percent of the voting rights in Scania and increase its direct stake to 37.73 percent after buying shares from the Wallenberg family, the German company said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Porsche shifted its long-awaited bid for Volkswagen into high gear.
Porsche's supervisory board approved a plan to increase its VW stake to more than 50 percent, from around 31 percent at present, it said.
It was not immediately clear if the two developments were related, and the Porsche-VW deal was expected to face several months of reviews by regulatory authorities.
A merger of Porsche and Volkswagen was not planned, Porsche said, and VW also stressed that it intended to to preserve the Scania brand along with its headquarters and engineering team in Sweden.
“Scania is a strong premium brand which has a prosperous future,” VW chairman Martin Winterkorn said in a statement.
Scania boss Leif Ostlin told a press conference in Stockholm: “I very much welcome VW as the majority shareholder. It's good for Scania to have the stability” following months of speculation over the company's future.
VW is also the leading shareholder in German conglomerate MAN, another manufacturer of heavy trucks and buses that tried to take over Scania in late 2006.
A merger of Scania and MAN would create the biggest European manufacturer of heavy trucks and Volkswagen reportedly favours a three-way tie-up that would also include VW's Brazilian lorry activities.
VW agreed to pay 200 Swedish kronor (21.4 euros, 32.4 dollars) per Scania share to the Wallenberg Foundations and Investor AG, which is controlled by the family, bringing the cost of the deal to around 2.87 billion euros.
Investor chief executive Borje Ekholm said his company had held a stake in Scania since the truck maker was founded in 1916, adding that the deal with Volkswagen would aid Scania's future development.
“VW has proven to be a very good owner of industrial companies … and this transaction is the best solution for Scania,” Ekholm said.
VW has been increasing its voting rights in Scania for the past several months by exchanging shares with fewer rights for others that had more.
It has pursued the same strategy with MAN.
MAN welcomed the news of VW's Swedish move, with a spokesman telling AFP: “We foresee better conditions for the cooperation we seek with Scania and the heavy vehicle activities of Volkswagen.”
But VW financial director Dieter Poetsch told the Stockholm news conference that a merger of Scania and MAN was not likely in the short term.
Analysts from Merck Finck nonetheless said in a research note that “we think .. the way is open to finalise a combination” of Scania and MAN.
Juergen Pieper of Metzler bank added: “VW ended up becoming an active buyer so the three groups work together. Within six months it will probably also take over MAN.”
Shares in MAN showed strong gains in late Frankfurt trading, advancing 4.91 percent to 91.50 euros in a market that was 1.18 percent lower overall.
VW shares rose by 2.05 percent at 153.06 euros, while Porsche, which is not listed on the Dax index, had gained 3.05 percent to 117 euros.
