Volkswagen AG said Wednesday it has completed purchase of a majority stake of fellow German truck producer MAN SE, opening the way to becoming “a new top player on the global truck market.”
VW has been trying for years to merge its commercial vehicle operations with MAN and with truck manufacturer Scania AB of Sweden, which Volkswagen has controlled for five years.
“The Volkswagen Group has moved a key step closer towards realizing its goal of an integrated commercial vehicles group” by combining the three operations, VW said in a statement.
“Europe’s largest automaker now holds 55.9% of the voting rights and 53.71% of the share capital of MAN SE,” said Volkswagen, which is also a major worldwide automobile producer.
“This marks the birth of a new top player on the global truck market,” Martin Winterkorn, CEO of Volkswagen AG, said in a statement at VW’s Wolfsburg, Germany.
The combined companies sell more trucks in Europe than do either Sweden-based Volvo AB or Germany’s Daimler AG.