German car manufacturer Volkswagen has bought a 30.62% share in Scania from Investor and the Wallenberg family, making it the Swedish truck maker's largest shareholder with a total share of 68.8%. The sale also paves the way for the potential three-way merger between
VW, Scania and MAN which has been in the pipeline for over a year.
VW, which owns a significant number of shares in MAN, has not officially mentioned a merger, although it has previously spoken of synergies between the companies, also involving VW's operations in the South American heavy truck market. In a statement VW says the Scania management will remain unchanged and all its operations will continue as usual from its Swedish base at Södertälje.
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