Volkswagen’s €6.7 billion (A$9.8 billion) offer for Swedish truck brand Scania has been accepted by minority shareholders – a big step in the German company’s plan to create a trucks alliance to compete in global markets.
According to newswire Reuters, Scania's full integration into the German group is vital for VW's effort to align the Swedish company with MAN and its light commercial-vehicle business, to take on global leaders Daimler and Volvo.
VW said on Tuesday it would now control 90.5 per cent of Scania's capital after 27.5 per cent of stockholders of the Swedish company accepted Volkswagen’s offer, exceeding the 90 per cent acceptance threshold.
“We can now take the next logical and consistent step in our strategy to strengthen the operating integration of Scania, MAN and VW commercial vehicles,” Reuters quoted Chief Executive, Martin Winterkorn.
To date, Europe's biggest automotive group had been struggling to replicate the success of its multi-brand strategy in passenger cars in the trucking industry. The new alliance with Scania is now supposed to deepen cooperation in areas including drive-trains, chassis and electronics, and will be headed by former Daimler executive, Andreas Renschler.