MAN leaves Volkswagen’s transmission and marine diesel business to Volkswagen

Going public planned

Truck manufacturer MAN is leaving the transmission and marine diesel divisions to the parent company Volkswagen. The car manufacturer will pay around two million euros for this. Without the splitting from Renk AG in Augsburg and MAN Energy Solutions, an IPO of the VW truck and bus division Tarton is not possible. Thereby only the truck brands MAN and Scania shall be considered. Peripheral areas that have nothing to do with the core business must therefore disappear.

MAN announced that Volkswagen will pay around 1.85 to 2.05 billion euros to the transmission manufacturer Renk and MAN Energy Solutions for a share of 76 percent. The American subsidiary of MAN Energy Solutions will become part of a US subsidiary of Volkswagen.

Andreas Renschler, CEO of Traton, wants to transform MAN into a pure truck manufacturer. However, how exactly this will be done has been unclear so far. The 14,500 employees who build power plant turbines and diesel engines every day are now also part of Volkswagen, even if they are not part of the core business.

Renk and MAN Energy Solutions belong to the tradition of the MAN Group, which has existed for 250 years. Until the beginning of the 2000s, the company also built printing presses and industrial plants.

The purchase price for MAN is equal to the book value of the truck builder’s annual balance sheet. There would therefore be no unscheduled profit. The purchase shall be finalized before the end of this year. All profits that MAN makes until then will be paid out 100 percent to Volkswagen. 24 percent of MAN is still in free float.

By the end of the year, Traton should be ready to go public. The IPO should help make it easier to control and steer the Volkswagen Group. All preparations are already in progress.

However, when exactly Volkswagen will send Traton to the stock exchange will depend on the current state of the stock market. The target was first set for Easter 2019. In total, three VW Group companies – MAN, Renk and Audi – would be listed on the stock exchange. Added to this is the VW major shareholder Porsche.