MAN CEO: no plan to control JV with Sinotruk

Shanghai, August 3 (Gasgoo.com) German heavy truck maker MAN is to buy a stake of 25% plus one share in the Chinese group Sinotruk, but MAN CEO Hakan Samuelsson said MAN has no plan to control Sinotruk, gasgoo.com said today.

Sinotruk (Hong Kong) Ltd., China's largest heavy-truck manufacturer by sales volume, agreed in mid-July to sell just over a 25% stake in itself to German truck maker MAN SE for €560 million ($796 million). MAN sees Sinotruk as its "best" partner that it can find in the Chinese market.

Hakan Samuelsson has told Chinese media that in its talks with Sinotruk, MAN only focused on the control of its own technology, with no plan to be a majority partner. Based its previous joint venture experience, the German truck-maker hoped its new JV with Sinotruk could avoid the intellectual property rights problems, said the CEO of MAN.

The tie-up is the second-largest foreign investment in China's auto industry, according to Dealogic, and a step toward boosting Sinotruk's presence in Europe and other developed markets, its chairman Ma Chunji hopes.

"For our company, this is really a chance to catapult us into the first class globally," Mr. Ma said in an interview.

The Sinotruk-MAN deal is also part of a broader global push by China's auto manufacturers, which in recent months have made bids on General Motors Corp.'s Saab, Hummer and Opel units, and Ford Motor Co.'s Volvo.