VW won't buy Kenworth

Volkswagen has vociferously denied claims from one of its key German rivals that it is on the verge of taking over family-owned US trucking giant, Paccar.

Speaking to a group of industry analysts, Daimler executive Wolfgang Bernhard speculated that Volkswagen would buy the Paccar group, which owns and builds Kenworth, Peterbilt and DAF heavy trucks, sometime next year.

Bernhard, who is in charge of the trucking division of Mercedes-Benz’s parent company and governs both the Mercedes-Benz and Freightliner brands, made the extraordinary claim during a meeting of analysts last Thursday, according to the New York Times.

A former Volkswagen executive himself, Bernhard claimed he had heard the takeover talk from “serious, multiple sources”, the New York Times reported.

But Volkswagen has hit back at suggestions it has its sights set on Paccar, which controls more than a quarter of heavy truck sales in the US, calling Bernhard’s speculation “complete rubbish”.

A takeover of the publicly listed Paccar would be a big cost for even the mighty Volkswagen Group to swallow, given that its closing price on the day of Bernhard’s comments put its value at around $US30 billion.

Volkswagen had cash reserves of €17 billion euros at the end of the first quarter this year, but it has also just committed €2 billion of that to building two new car plants in China, where it is market leader.

Volkswagen already has its own heavy trucking units and is the world’s third-biggest heavy truck maker, but is still digesting the takeovers of both MAN and Scania.