MAN not required to bid on remaining Scania shares

The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, Finansinspektionen (FI) said its investigation has concluded that the German truck manufacturer MAN AG is not obliged to launch a bid on Scania AB.

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FI investigated whether MAN should have to launch a bid due following its acquisition of shares in Scania, since Volkswagen AG - which increased its shareholding in Scania at the same time - owns part of MAN.

"FI has found existing circumstances supporting that MAN and Volkswagen are acting in concert with each other in the eyes of the law, and that MAN, through its share acquisitions, could therefore actually be obliged to launch a bid," FI said.

"FI has ruled, however, that it is VW, as the largest owner in Scania, in such a case that should fulfill the obligation to launch a bid," FI said.

However, it said that VW has been granted an exemption by the Swedish Securities Council (Aktiemarknadsnamnden) which means that it is not required to make any bid on the remaining shares in Scania.

"This exemption has not been appealed and FI therefore has no means to retry the matter. There are subsequently no grounds for FI to intervene in this matter," it said.

VW in early March reached a deal with Scania's major shareholders, the Wallenberg Foundations and Wallenberg-controlled Investor AG, to acquire their latter's shares in the Swedish truckmaker, resulting in VW becoming the majority shareholder in Scania.

The deal increased VW's voting rights in Scania to 68.60 percent from 37.98 percent and increased its share capital to 37.73 percent from 20.89 percent.