According to Autonews, BMW shares increased by 2 percent yesterday after a report published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about their plan to share research and manufacturing as long as the partnership doesn't affect their brands.
The aforementioned publication said the two German luxury car makers were stepping up cooperation plans in that direction in an effort to cut costs during the financial downturn.
"According to our calculations, a cooperation in purchasing, r&d and financial services could generate annual cost savings of up to 3 billion euros or 1.10 euros per Daimler share and 1.60 euros per BMW share," Commerzbank analyst Daniel Schwarz said in a note to clients.
"We believe that BMW is the more efficient company with regard to purchasing compared to [Daimler's] Mercedes," he added. What's more, he claims that Mercedes-Benz stands to gain more from the cooperation.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung went on saying that the first contracts were ready to sign, but the two car manufacturers were not planning any cross-shareholding. As a matter of fact, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have been discussing for years about the possibility to combine resources, but engineers from both car companies refused to use the rivals' technologies.
However, with the economic crisis hitting both automakers, the pressure on resources is extremely high. Therefore, the two companies may eventually reach an agreement. And keeping in mind the fact that only some speculations about a possible cooperation between the two car manufacturers made BMW shares increase, their discussions might after all end with a profitable partnership.
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