MADRID, 15 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The truck manufacturer Navistar has opened its hand to explore a possible merger with the Volkswagen group’s industrial vehicles division, Traton, after the German firm increased its purchase offer by 23% last week, although it has indicated that this amount undervalues the company.
In this way, Navistar has indicated that although the Traton proposal, which offers 43 dollars (36.21 euros) for each share of the company that it does not own, “significantly undervalues” the price of the company, it does represent a “point starting “to further explore the possibility of the transaction.
Navistar’s board of directors has indicated that, after this increase in the offer and given the relationship that already exists between both companies, the firms will be able to initiate discussions on a possible merger so that Traton “appreciates the true value of a possible combination” .
Last week, the industrial vehicles division of the Volkswagen group offered nearly 3,600 million dollars (more than 3,000 million euros at the current exchange rate) to acquire all the shares that it does not own in Navistar and that would mean taking over 83.2% of the remaining capital.
Traton, which already owns 16.8% of the US company, showed its willingness to pay 43 dollars for each of the remaining shares, which would add up to an amount of almost 3.6 billion dollars and would value the company at more than 4.3 billion dollars (3,620 million euros).
All this after in January Traton already offered for Navistar about 2,900 million dollars (2,441 million euros), when trying to buy all its shares for a price of 35 dollars (29.47 euros).