We recently told you that Suzuki and Volkswagen had, had a little falling out.
Well this has intensified recently with reports in German magazine Der Spiegel citing an unnamed senior manager at Volkswagen as saying he did not rule out a full takeover of Suzuki.
However, various industry analysts are of a much different opinion.
“First of all, (Suzuki chairman and CEO) Osamu Suzuki would not want to sell. Volkswagen simply won’t be able to take over all of Suzuki against his will,” Commerzbank analyst Daniel Schwarz said.
Der Spiegel had said that should the two companies stop the alliance then Volkswagen would no longer need Suzuki’s approval to raise its existing stake in the Japanese company, but analysts are sceptical.
“I think it is rather unlikely that Volkswagen will go for a hostile takeover of Suzuki,” Macquarie Research analyst Christian Breitsprecher said.
“Generally speaking, there are very rare instances of auto alliances being successful unless one side buys a considerable equity stake in the other,” Commerzbank’s Schwarz said.
“Theoretically, it would make sense for VW to increase its stake in Suzuki”, he said, “but after relations between the two companies soured that possibility is dim at best.”
