There is “no new date” for the relaunch of the postponed IPO of Volkswagen commercial vehicle division Traton Group, which contains the Scania and MAN brands.
Despite Traton Group, formerly Volkswagen Truck & Bus, announcing record results for the first quarter of 2019 this week, a spokesman confirmed that parent company Volkswagen has no immediate plans to relaunch the IPO, which was postponed in March.
The spokesman told motortransport.co.uk: “Volkswagen postponed the IPO earlier this year due to market conditions and no new date has been set.”
Announcing the group’s first quarter results for 2019 this week, Christian Schulz, CFO of Traton Group, remained tight lipped on the subject, telling analysts in a webinar that the group was not prepared to discuss the delayed IPO.
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When Volkswagen postponed the IPO in March, Volkswagen CFO Frank Witter cited “tough global market conditions” as the reason, adding that the company would wait until market conditions improved.
Volkswagen’s move to sell off Traton Group, is widely seen as part of a wider strategy by the manufacturer to offset the impact of falling sales in China and tighter European emission regulations which have hit sales of diesel cars.
Reporting its results for the first quarter of 2019, Traton Group revealed that operating profit had risen year on year by 21.9% to €470m (£405m).
Sales revenue rose year on year 6% to €6.4bn with the group selling 57,160 vehicles worldwide, up 7.4% on the prior-year.
