Last week, Suzuki CEO, Osamu Suzuki, declared at a press conference at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan that it would likely refuse any approach for a bigger stake coming from Volkswagen, the company that bought a month ago 19.9% share of Suzuki at the price of around $2.7 billion.
He added that Suzuki won’t become Volkswagen’s 12th brand.
Mr. Suzuki said “When Suzuki becomes a bigger and more successful company, Volkswagen will probably want to buy more of our shares. If that happens, Suzuki will probably respond by saying, ‘Let’s continue as we are’.”
On the other side, Volkswagen chairman, Ferdinand Piech, declared in the past that the company’s portfolio will grow to 12 brands, from 10 as it is now.
Even if nothing official appeared, many of the industry experts are estimating that Volkswagen will push for a controlling stake in Suzuki, so the bid to become the world’s number one car maker by 2018 will be more easy to reach.
