DaimlerChrysler close to deal for MTU shares
STUTTGART -- DaimlerChrysler is close to buying out the remaining shareholders in heavy diesel unit MTU Friedrichshafen, clearing the way for a divestment, sources close to the matter said on Thursday.
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A deal would give the world's fifth-biggest carmaker the Brandenstein-Zeppelin family's nearly 5 percent stake in MTU.
"There is a joint statement planned for (Friday, Sept. 16) with DaimlerChrysler," a spokeswoman for family patriarch Albrecht Graf von Brandenstein-Zeppelin said, but she gave no details.
DaimlerChrysler, which controls 88 percent of MTU, last week announced that the third major shareholder in the company, the founding Maybach family, had agreed to sell its 7.2 percent stake to the automobile giant.
The carmaker intends to sell the unit, but wide-ranging veto rights from the two founding families had complicated the disposal and led to a public clash.
Daimler vetoed the families' plan to sell their stakes to U.S. private equity firm the Carlyle Group since Daimler wanted at least two bidders in order to net a higher price for the unit, which it has said is worth more than 1 billion euros ($1.22 billion).
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's cabinet has proposed an extension to existing law -- widely referred to as Lex MTU -- to require government approval for selling any company such as MTU that generates even some revenue from the defence industry.
MTU manufactures diesel engines for ships, tanks and other heavy vehicles.
