(Adds details)
By Miral Fahmy
ABU DHABI, April 23 (Reuters) - A senior Abu Dhabi official is likely to sign a deal to buy a stake in German carmaker Volkswagen during a visit to Berlin starting Monday, sources in the Arab country close to the deal said on Friday.
The UAE's official news agency, WAM, said on Friday that Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed al-Nahayan, the UAE's deputy prime minister and president's son, would sign an "important agreement" with Europe's top carmaker on behalf of Abu Dhabi, the wealthiest of the seven emirates that make up the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.
WAM did not give details, but the sources told Reuters that there was a good chance that Sheikh Hamad would finalise an agreement to buy the stake, the size of which they did not disclose.
A spokesman for Europe's largest car maker in Hamburg said the primary reason for the visit was to complete an agreement for Abu Dhabi's state-owned Mubadala Development Company to purchase Leaseplan, Europe's leading car fleet management firm, along with Volkswagen and a Saudi partner, from Dutch bank ABN Amro for a total of two billion euros ($2.4 billion).
"The main goal is to sign an agreement on the joint venture," he said.
Sources close to the LeasePlan deal have said, however, that VW could sell a 10 percent stake worth 1.6 billion euros to the Gulf emirate.
MEETING SET
The delegation from Abu Dhabi is scheduled to meet with VW Chief Executive Bernd Pischetsrieder, according to company sources, who said VW's supervisory board chairman, Ferdinand Piech, could also take part in the meeting.
The VW spokesman declined to comment on whether the possible purchase of a VW stake by the emirate would be discussed.
Pischetsrieder had said on Thursday that Abu Dhabi may buy a strategic stake in his firm.
The sale would fund VW's 50 percent share of the LeasePlan venture and gain the automaker a shareholder ally as pressure mounts on Berlin to scrap anti-takeover defences at the firm.
Abu Dhabi's Mubadala is expected to hold 25 percent of the new venture, and the Saudi-owned Olayan Group the remaining 25 percent.
Pressure from the European Commission to scrap a law that gives VW's home state effective control of the company with a voting stake of 20 percent may encourage VW to raise funds by selling shares to Abu Dhabi rather than distributing them more widely.
Investors and analysts welcomed the LeasePlan purchase, saying it would reduce VW's dependence on the cyclical mass car market and increase its exposure to higher margins in fleet management and after-sales services for corporate clients.
LeasePlan will be one of VW's biggest acquisitions, giving it control of a firm that manages about 1.2 million vehicles and made net profit of 193 million euros last year.
LeasePlan will buy the fleet services unit of VW's car rental subsidiary Europcar, which manages 60,000 cars.
($1=0.8424 euro) (With reporting by Jan Schwartz in Hamburg.)