Volkswagen extends Scania offer deadline
05/05/2014
VW originally set April 25th as the deadline for Scania shareholders to accept its offer of SEK200 per share, setting 90% of share ownership as an acceptable threshold – from 63%. But it fell just short of this target.
It has decided that 90% is the minimum needed to push ahead with much deeper integration of its two European truck brands, MAN and Scania, in order to maximise manufacturing, purchasing and development synergies.
After achieving ownership of just 88.25% , VW has now extended the offer deadline to May 16th, expecting to win over more shareholders and reach the 90% target.
“We are pleased that the broad majority of Scania’s minority shareholders have accepted our very attractive offer,” comments Volkswagen’s chief financial officer Hans Dieter Pötsch. “This already takes us a major step forward towards our target of becoming the owner of more than 90% of all shares in Scania.
“On this basis, we are confident that during the extended acceptance period we will meet the necessary acceptance level for this transaction. This would be a milestone in the process of completing our integrated commercial vehicles group, which will be for the benefit of all parties involved.”
