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FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) -- Continental's CEO Manfred Wennemer and supervisory board head Hubertus von Gruenberg are divided over the takeover attempt by Schaeffler Group, Handelsblatt and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported.

While CEO Wennemer has strongly rejected Schaeffler's surprise bid, von Gruenberg during a supervisory board meeting on Tuesday lobbied for entering negotiations with family-owned Schaeffler arguing the takeover cannot be avoided, the reports said, citing supervisory board sources.

"His comments were kept vague. But I had the feeling he's more involved than he admits," Handelsblatt quoted a participant of the meeting.

Financial Times Deutschland reported, citing management sources, that Wennemer is considering seeking an investor as a white knight submitting a counter-bid to Schaeffler's offer. It said Goldman Sachs is currently preparing the search for such an investor.

Von Gruenberg in a statement late on Thursday said the supervisory board will form an opinion on the Schaeffler bid as soon as it has been detailed and that he as the supervisory board head is unable to make a statement on the bid before the board has come to an opinion.

Ball-bearing maker Schaeffler directly owns 2.97 percent of Continental's shares and is entitled, via financial instruments, to a further 4.95 percent. It has also agreed to swap transactions relating to about 28 percent of Continental's shares. This stake-building went unnoticed until it approached Continental's management last Friday.

Meanwhile, Handelsblatt reported German financial watchdog Bafin will approve Schaeffler's swap agreements, citing a person familiar with the matter.

It said a spokeswoman for Bafin declined to comment and said the investigation is ongoing.