Traton
Traton SE, known as the Traton Group, is a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group and one of the world's largest commercial vehicle manufacturers with its MAN, Scania, and Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus brands. The company also has digital services branded as RIO. In 2019, the Group sold around 242,000 vehicles. The range of products includes light-, medium-, and heavy-duty trucks, as well as vans and buses. As of December 31, 2019, Traton employed around 83,000 people in its commercial vehicle brands.
History
In 1979, Volkswagen AG held a 67% share in Chrysler Motors do Brasil Ltda., a Brazilian commercial vehicle manufacturer. In 1980, Volkswagen acquired the remaining shares in Chrysler, renamed the company Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus Ltda., and assigned it to the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles division.In the early 2000s, Volkswagen contributed 3 billion German marks to Swedish Scania AB, controlling 34% of the voting rights and holding 18.7% of the share capital. In 2006, MAN SE presented Volkswagen and the other Scania shareholders with a takeover offer in the amount of 9.6 billion euros. A few days later, Volkswagen rejected the offer, and broached the subject of a potential truck alliance for the first time.
In October 2006, Volkswagen AG announced that it had acquired 15% of MAN SE, but did not intend to take over. On October 12, 2006, MAN SE increased its takeover bid to Scania by 400 million euros, bringing it to a total of 10 billion euros. At the same time, it bought additional shares, giving it control of about 14% of Scania AB. After the partners also rejected the revised offer, MAN withdrew the offer in January 2007 and began talks about a possible alliance between the three companies. To further consolidate this alliance, Volkswagen acquired another 14.9% of MAN. Shortly afterwards, Volkswagen announced that it now held 35.3% of the Scania voting rights. Volkswagen acquired a further 30.62% of the voting rights from the Swedish Investor AB and the Wallenberg foundations in March 2008. Volkswagen had already controlled this share in the past by means of an agreement with the existing shareholders.
In December 2008, Volkswagen AG sold the Brazilian subsidiary Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus Ltda. to MAN SE for 1.2 billion euros. The company was incorporated into MAN Latin America Ltda. under a new name, selling the majority of its heavy trucks and buses under the Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus brand, alongside MAN Truck and Bus products. Volkswagen acquired further MAN SE shares at the beginning of May 2011 and was obliged to submit a takeover offer, which it did at the end of the same month. Volkswagen held the majority of voting rights at 55.9% at the end of the acceptance period. As part of further share purchases, Volkswagen announced voting rights of 75.03% on June 6, 2012. Due to the resulting statutory blocking minority of 25%, Volkswagen was given sole control of MAN SE. On April 16, 2013, Volkswagen AG applied for “Truck & Bus GmbH” to be entered into the commercial register of the city of Wolfsburg. On forming this new subsidiary, Volkswagen transferred the shares it held in MAN SE, with whom Truck & Bus GmbH signed a control and profit transfer agreement on June 6, 2013. Volkswagen AG held more than 89% of the Scania AB voting rights as a result of the shares in Scania held by its subsidiary, MAN.
In February 2014, Volkswagen issued a voluntary public takeover bid to the remaining shareholders of Scania. At the end of the acceptance period in June 2014, Volkswagen held 99.57% of the voting rights. Following the squeeze-out under Swedish law, Volkswagen AG became the holder of 82.63% of the voting rights directly and another 17.37% via MAN SE.
At the beginning of July 2015, the shareholders' meeting of Truck & Bus GmbH decided to rename it Volkswagen Truck & Bus GmbH, a company based in Braunschweig. Andreas Renschler, at that time responsible for the Commercial Vehicles on the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, became CEO. Martin Winterkorn was appointed as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. The shares Volkswagen held in Scania were transferred to the renamed holding company. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles remained part of Volkswagen AG.
In 2016 Volkswagen Truck & Bus acquired a 16.6% stake in U.S. commercial vehicle maker Navistar International Corporation. Both companies entered into a strategic technology and supply cooperation initiative and established a purchasing joint venture.
On June 20, 2018, it was announced that Volkswagen Truck & Bus was to be renamed Traton, effective from the third quarter of 2018.
On June 26, 2018, Volkswagen Truck & Bus GmbH was transformed into a German stock corporation, becoming Volkswagen Truck & Bus AG.
In August 2018, Volkswagen Truck and Bus was renamed Traton AG. They used their new name at their IAA 2018 press-conference with their tagline "Transforming Transportation". Followed by the transformation into a European company in December 2018, the company was renamed Traton SE.
On June 28, 2019, Traton was listed at the Frankfurt and Stockholm stock exchange. The placement price for the dual listing was set at 27.00 euros per share. A total of 57,500,000 ordinary bearer shares from Volkswagen AG's holdings were placed with investors, 11.5% of Traton's share capital. Volkswagen raised 1.55 billion euros.
In 2018, Volkswagen Truck and Bus and Hino Motors announced a wide-ranging strategic partnership for activities including procurement, technologies and logistics. In November 2019, they established a procurement joint venture called Hino and Traton Global Procurement, with 51% of it owned by Traton and 49% by Hino.
On January 30, 2020, Traton announced a proposal to purchase all outstanding shares in Navistar.
In February 2020, Traton announced that it intends to merge with MAN SE in order to simplify Traton’s overall structure. As a result of the merger, MAN Truck & Bus SE, Scania AB and Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus will become wholly owned direct subsidiaries of Traton.
Corporate strategy
According to the company, teams of MAN and Scania engineers will jointly develop the core components of the powertrain. The management of the cross-brand project groups will be taken over by one of the two companies. Scania is responsible for large engines with 13 liter-capacity, whereas MAN is in charge of smaller units with five- to nine-liter engines. The breakdown for exhaust systems and gearboxes is similar.Corporate structure
Integration into the Volkswagen Group
Traton forms the Commercial Vehicles Business Area of the Volkswagen Group, which owns a 89.7% majority shareholding. The Commercial Vehicles Business Area formerly included the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand, but following changes in the management structure of the Volkswagen Group, the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand was reallocated to the Passenger Cars Business Area from 1 January 2019.Traton holds direct majority shareholdings in Scania AB and MAN SE, along with 16.7% of Navistar International Corporation.
MAN SE holds 100% of MAN Truck & Bus SE and 100% of MAN Latin America Ltda, along with the remaining 17.37% of Scania AB and 25% + 1 share of Sinotruk.