By Chad Thomas Bloomberg News

Published: September 14, 2006
 
 
BERLIN MAN, the German maker of commercial vehicles, said Wednesday that it may buy a Swedish competitor, Scania, to become the largest manufacturer of heavy trucks and buses in Europe.
 
MAN said that a combination with Scania, which is based in Soedertaelje, Sweden, would be "compelling."
 
MAN's chief executive, Hakan Samuelsson, who once worked at Scania, wants his company to grow so that it can challenge DaimlerChrysler and Volvo, the largest European truckmakers. If MAN and Scania were combined, the company would take the top spot in European sales. Last year, the two sold 76,469 buses and trucks over 16 tons in Western Europe compared with 56,900 units for DaimlerChrysler, the leader.
 
"There is a clear-cut case for MAN to continue to grow and to take over the image leader, which is Scania," said Peter Schmidt, managing director at Automotive Industry Data, a consulting company in Warwick, England. "The opening of Central Europe has made it a much bigger market."
 
Shares of Scania rose 32.5 kronor, or .46, to 422 kronor in Stockholm. MAN stock slid to