Posted on 23-03-2009 by Vlad Balan
Leave your comment Category: Mercedes-Benz, News
Major change of strategy for Daimler. After last year, on June 17, it announced plans of buying back 6 billion Euros of its own stock, now Bloomberg reports that Daimler AG, the world’s second largest luxury car maker (after BMW) will sell a 9.1% stake to Aabar Investments PJSC, an investment group from Abu Dhabi. The Middle Eastern group will buy 96.4 million shares for 20.27 Euros each ($27.44), the whole transaction is worth around 1.95 billion Euros (around $2.7 billion). Daimler decided to sell this stake after the financial crisis caused the car and truck demand to take a deep plunge. According to last year’s financial statements, the German company lost 1.53 billion Euros ($2.07 billion) only in the quarter, especially due to slow sales and expenses with former US arm Chrysler.
“We are delighted to welcome Aabar as a new major shareholder that is supportive of our corporate strategy [..] We look forward to working together to pursue joint strategic initiatives” said Dieter Zetsche, Daimler’s CEO.
“Daimler is an iconic brand and a financially strong company,” said Aabar Chairman Khadem al-Qubaisi. “We are delighted to have the opportunity to make this investment and are excited by the commercial potential of our partnership.”
Source: Bloomberg
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