HANOVER, Germany, April 25 (Reuters) - Volkswagen has moved a step closer to combining the three trucks businesses it owns, with a deal to take full financial and strategic control of MAN SE.
Europe's biggest carmaker said on Thursday the supervisory boards of both companies had approved the so-called domination and profit and loss transfer agreement.
Under the deal, Volkswagen (VW), which already owns 75.03 percent of MAN, will offer 80.89 euros per share for the MAN stock it does not already own - as previously announced.
VW is seeking to integrate MAN more closely with Sweden's Scania - which it also controls - and its own commercial vehicles unit, in a bid to cut costs in procurement, production and research and development.
A three-way link up would leapfrog Daimler and Volvo to become Europe's biggest manufacturer of heavy trucks.
The move is part of a drive by VW to consolidate a global empire that includes everything from motorcycles to supercars and heavy-duty trucks. It already has a domination and profit and loss transfer agreement with Audi, its luxury-car division.
At 1250 GMT, VW shares were up 0.6 percent at 151.65 euros, while MAN's were up 0.4 percent at 85.25 euros.
($1 = 0.7695 euros) (Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Mark Potter)