MAN, VW and Scania
男子汉，大众和斯堪尼亚

MAN overboard
被边缘化的男子汉公司
Nov 26th 2009
From The Economist print edition

An abrupt departure may pave the way for the fusion of three truckmakers
哈坎的突然离开促成三大卡车巨头的合并

HAKAN SAMUELSSON had been an exemplary boss of MAN, Europe’s third-biggest truckmaker. After taking charge in 2005, he transformed it from a clunky conglomerate with interests from printing presses to spaceflight into a business focused on building trucks, turbines and the house-sized diesel engines that power more than three-quarters of the world’s big ships. He also put in place a vigorous international expansion plan that included the purchase last year of Volkswagen’s Brazilian heavy-truck business and this year of a 25% stake in Sinotruk, China’s biggest maker of heavy trucks. Within five years, analysts expected MAN to be earning almost half its revenues in emerging markets. So when Mr Samuelsson abruptly stepped down on November 23rd it came as a shock to nearly everyone. Even his spokesman was on holiday.
哈坎-萨缪尔森一直是欧洲第三大卡车生产商男子汉公司的模范老板。自从2005年接受男子汉卡车公司以来，哈坎将男子汉公司从一个下制印刷机，上制宇宙飞船的杂七杂八大制造工厂，变为一个专注于制造卡车，涡轮以及可给世界上四分之三的超大型船只供能的，体积堪比房屋大小的柴油机。同时，哈坎积极的实施其国际扩张计划，这个计划包括去年对大众巴西重卡的收购，以及今年针对中国最大的重型卡车制造商中国重汽25%股权的收购案。分析家预测，五年内，男子汉集团有将近一半的收入将来自发展中国家新兴市场。所以在今年11月23日哈坎提出辞职的消息时，众人皆表示震惊。甚至于他的发言人也没有任何准备，正在逍遥度假中。

The firm mumbled that his departure would allow it to focus on its main business. Some saw this as a reference to allegations that a few of MAN’s employees had paid bribes to win contracts, and that by leaving Mr Samuelsson would allow a clean break with the past. But prosecutors, who did not consider him a suspect, were equally surprised by his exit. His response to the allegations had been admirable, appointing independent lawyers and auditors to conduct a thorough investigation, while offering an amnesty to employees who agreed to help them.
对于哈坎的辞职，公司含混的对外界解释为，这个决定可以使公司更加专注于其主要业务。一些人认为，哈坎的辞职涉及到了一些指控，这些指控透露少部分男子汉公司的雇员曾经通过行贿来争取合同，而萨缪尔森的离开可以使得公司和从前有个彻底的了结。但是这些指控人，并没有认为哈坎是嫌疑人，对于其离职表示了同样的震惊。哈坎对于这些指控的反应是十分明智的，一方面他制定了独立律师和听证人来彻查此事，另一方面，他对于那些支持他的雇员有给予宽大处理。

A likelier explanation is that he clashed, not for the first time, with the chairman of the Volkswagen Group, the wily Ferdinand Piëch. In 2006 the two sparred when Mr Samuelsson launched a hostile bid for Scania, a Swedish truck firm. VW, which at the time controlled 34% of Scania’s stock, did not support the takeover. Instead Mr Piëch turned the tables on Mr Samuelsson when VW bought 20% of MAN (a stake subsequently increased to almost 30%). Mr Piëch is now chairman of MAN’s supervisory board too, and so in a position to realise a long-held ambition to forge a three-way merger that would include VW’s truck business—a combination that would leapfrog Volvo and Daimler AG to become Europe’s biggest truckmaker. Analysts at HSBC reckon that a merger of just Scania and MAN would lead to annual savings of about 600m ($900m) a year. Mr Piëch has said in the past that a full-blown combination of all three could cut costs by as much as 1 billion a year.
另一个更为可信的解释是，哈坎和大众集团狡诈的主席费迪南德皮耶希有过多次冲突。早在2006年这两个人就萨缪尔森针对瑞典卡车公司斯坎尼亚的收购案的反对态度进行过一次交锋。当时大众公司持有斯坎尼亚公司34%的股票，但是不愿接管这个公司。但是大众公司却意图接管持股比例仅占20%的男子汉公司（随后这个比例又达到30%）。现在皮耶希是男子汉公司监事会的主席了，也有能力实现他长期的梦想，那就是发起一个包括大众卡车业务在内的三方并购业务，从而超过沃尔沃和戴姆勒AG成为欧洲最大的卡车制造商。汇丰银行的分析家认为将斯堪尼亚和男子汉并入大众，每年可以节省6亿欧元（约合9亿美元）的成本。皮耶希在过去也提到过，这三家公司的全面合并后，每年可以节省1亿欧元的成本。

Mr Samuelsson’s departure clears the way for his former adversary, Leif Oest ling, the head of Scania, to run the new entity. It also hints at how a deal may be structured. The simplest way would have been for MAN to buy Scania, as MAN and VW between them already control 88% of Scania’s voting stock. That would, however, have forced VW to book a loss on its Scania stake (acquired at a higher share price than today’s), putting strain on a balance-sheet already stretched by VW’s takeover of Porsche. A better option for VW might be for Scania to buy MAN and sell its non-truck operations—a ploy Mr Samuelsson would have resisted.
萨缪尔森的离开为他的老对手，斯堪尼亚公司的头子雷夫-厄斯特接任并购后的公司扫清了障碍。他的离开也揭露了这桩交易的内幕。本来最简单的方式就是男子汉公司直买下斯堪尼亚公司，因为男子汉和大众公司总共持有斯堪尼亚公司的88%的股份。但是，那将使得大众公司持有的斯卡尼亚公司的股票出现账面亏损（大众公司取得的股价比今天的要高），给因为接管保时捷而压力重重的大众的资产负债表又加上一个重担。对于大众公司来说，更好的策略是让斯卡尼亚公司来收购男子汉公司，并且出售男子汉非卡车业务——这个着策略肯定是萨缪尔森坚决反对的。