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8 January 2007 - German engineering manufacturer MAN has hinted that it may not prolong a hostile €10.3bn ($13.4bn) offer for Swedish truck and genset maker Scania when it expires at the end of the month.
Last September MAN made the offer for a takeover of Scania, which would make the forced merger Europe's biggest truck maker. MAN AG subsequently bought a 14.5 per cent stake of voting shares in Scania, but a takeover has been met with fierce opposition from the holding company of Sweden's powerful Wallenberg family, Investor, whose voting stake in Scania's A shares now add up to more than 33 per cent.
As a forced merger would require approval from two-thirds of the shareholders of Scania's A and B shares, this holding gives the family the power of veto over the deal. Investor's aggressive tactic of raising its stake does not appear designed to scupper a deal but to either secure a higher price or, more likely, force a fundamental rethink of the terms.
Hakan Samuelsson, MAN's chief executive, said: "We have made a very attractive offer. We should not be ashamed for having made the first move. But when the shareholders - and in particular Investor - say they don't want the offer then we have to respect that. We have other options," he said.
Volkswagen Group (VW), which also holds 20 per cent of MAN, is keen to see a tie-up between the two truck makers and its own Brazilian truck assets but there is a debate over whether it would be better to delay a deal.
Analysts said that this could tempt some to push for VW's ultimate solution - a new holding company in which all three companies are merged and in which VW holds the majority.
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