Volkswagen to Merge MAN and Scania?

The expansionist endeavors of German carmaker Volkswagen seem to have reached a whole new level, as rumors began surfacing the carmaker is considering increasing its stake in MAN to above 50 percent (from about 30 percent) and then merge it with Swedish Scania into a new commercial division of the group.

The plan is, says Reuters, that the new company will be ready sometimes in 2011, the same year when the merger with Porsche is expected to be concluded. According to business weekly Wirtschaftswoche, the man to be put in charge of the integration of new division is Hans Dieter Poetsch, Volkswagen's CFO.

All the turmoil about MAN began after Hakan Samuelsson, MAN CEO, resigned last Monday. An unofficial reaction by Volkswagen was reported by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which, without naming sources, said Ferdinand Piech, Volkswagen's CEO, doesn't plan to integrate MAN and Scania into one group, but rather keep them separate into VW. Officially, Volkswagen said nothing.

If the MAN story turns out to be true, this would further add to the spending frenzy in which the German manufacturer engaged itself in.

Last week, the company presented an ambitious 25.8bn euro ($38.3 bn) investment plan for the next three years, of which 19.9bn euros to be invested in property, plant and equipment, with the rest to be used for development.

Additionally, VW announced it is going to buy assets of German contract car builder Karmann. The biggest exam VW has to pass is the acquisition of a 49.9 percent in Porsche AG by the end of this year.