The biggest European automaker, Volkswagen AG (VW), yesterday published an official takeover offer for the heavy truck manufacturer MAN SE, which VW wants to fold into a new truck behemoth.
VW made its “mandatory public offer to all third-party shareholders of MAN SE for their shares” at a price of 95 euros (US$136.80) for ordinary shares and 59.90 euros for preference share.
The offer period began yesterday and runs until June 29, with the deal subject to regulatory approval, “including merger control clearances,” a VW statement said.
“This offer represents a further step by Volkswagen towards the creation of an integrated commercial vehicle group consisting of MAN, Scania and Volkswagen,” it added.
VW said on May 9 that it held more than 30 percent of MAN, meaning that under German law VW was obliged to make an offer for all outstanding shares in the group, which also makes diesel engines and industrial turbines.
MAN is to be combined with the Swedish truck maker Scania AB and Volkswagen’s own commercial vehicle unit to create a major manufacturer of heavy trucks.
VW owns 45.66 percent of the shares in Scania, along with 70.94 percent of the voting rights, while MAN owns another 13.35 percent of Scania’s stock.
However, anti-trust restrictions have posed hurdles for a tie-up of heavy vehicle activities from all three brands VW noted earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Fiat SpA is interested in buying Canada’s 1.7 percent stake in Chrysler Group LLC, Fiat chief executive Sergio Marchionne said on Monday, while Canada’s finance minister said he would welcome an offer.
“I did have a brief chat with the minister [to say] that we would be quite willing to purchase Canada’s interest in Chrysler,” Marchionne told reporters at a Chrysler plant in Toronto.
However, he noted, “it is totally up to the discretion of the minister and the provincial government.”
At the same event, Canadian Finance Minister James Flaherty said: “We’re certainly open to it. We would have to look at what the proposal is before making a decision, of course.”
Fiat said on Friday it planned to boost its stake in Chrysler to 57 percent by the end of this year as the Italian auto giant moves to consolidate its control of the historic Detroit-based brand.
Fiat announced in a statement its decision to exercise an option to buy an additional 6 percent stake in Chrysler from the US Department of Treasury. It said the price of the purchase would be agreed with the department shortly.
Fiat currently holds a 30 percent stake in Chrysler, but the reimbursement of Chrysler loans to the US and Canadian governments yesterday has opened the way for the Italian company to increase its holding.
Flaherty said he was closely watching “what comes out of the process that is under way now with the United States Treasury.”
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