Volkswagen raises €2bn to help fund its Scania takeover

09/06/2014

Institutional investors bought 10.5 million shares at €191 a share, a discount of 2.4% to Tuesday's closing price, according to the Germany-based company.

The sale is part of a broader funding package to cover the €6.7 billion needed to buy full control of Scania and deepen a three-way alliance between the Swedish-based company, Volkswagen’s own commercial-vehicle unit and Munich-based MAN SE, which is also controlled by VW.

"The placement seems to have gone smoothly and the dilution is rather small," said Juergen Pieper, a Frankfurt-based analyst at Bankhaus Metzler, who added that VW opted to pursue the policy of protecting its credit rating:

"You can argue about whether or not this capital increase was really necessary as VW could have financed the transaction without it."