Porsche will soon control Europe’s largest car and trucks empire after an emergency meeting of its supervisory board on Monday gave the go-ahead for the German sports-car maker to increase its stake in Volkswagen from 31% to more than 50%. Hours earlier, VW, Europe’s largest carmaker, agreed to buy more than two-thirds of Sweden’s Scania which, together with its controlling stake in Germany’s MAN, will form the continent’s biggest truckmaker. The twin deals reshape Europe’s automotive industry and crown the spectacular career of Ferdinand Piëch, the controversial chairman of both VW and MAN, as well as a controlling shareholder of Porsche. Lex, however, notes potential concerns about both the Porsche-VW and VW-Scania deals.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 5:32 and is filed under Capital markets, M&A, People. Tagged with Ferdinand Pich, man, porsche, scania, VW. Edit this entry.