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Volkswagen has taken control of the Swedish truck maker Scania after buying the shares owned by the Swedish investment groups Investor AB and the Wallenberg Foundation. The deal is worth around €29 million.

It gives the German group an extra 30.62 per cent of voting rights in Scania to add to the 37.98 per cent it held previously. Its new 68.60 per cent ownership corresponds to 37.73 per cent of the capital.

VW has been pursuing Scania relentlessly over the past few years with the aim of creating an alliance with MAN, the German truckmaker which is also part-owned by VW and which was earlier a contender to take over Scania itself. VW executives already held many of the senior board posts at Scania.

VW emphasised that it wanted to Scania management to remain in place and that it would retain the headquarters and the engineering cengtre at Södertälje, south of Stockholm.

* Porsche set to bid for VW