Financial history
1891
Vagnfabriksaktiebolaget i Södertälje (Vabis) was established. The company was founded jointly by Philip Wersén and Surahammarsbruk, a centuries-old ironworks.
1900
Maskinfabriksaktiebolaget Scania (Latin for Skåne, Sweden’s southernmost province) in Malmö.
1911
The two companies, Vabis and Scania, merged.
1921
Scania-Vabis ran into financial difficulties. Fresh capital was supplied by Stockholms Enskilda Bank, owned by the Wallenberg family.
1934
This was the last year that the company showed a loss.
1948
Scania-Vabis became the general agent in Sweden for Volkswagen.
1957
Scania-Vabis started production in Brazil.
1965
An assembly plant in the Netherlands was inaugurated.
1969
Scania-Vabis and Saab AB merged to form a new company, Saab-Scania.
1976
A Scania factory was inaugurated in Argentina.
1991
Saab-Scania became a wholly owned subsidiary of Investor AB and the company was de-listed.
1992
The factory in France was inaugurated.
1995
Saab-Scania was divided into two independent companies, Scania AB and Saab AB. Scania became a wholly owned subsidiary of Investor.
1996
Scania gained a stock exchange listing. Initially, Investor offered 50 percent of Scania’s Series A shares and 50 percent of its Series B shares to the market. Including an over-allotment option, Investor reduced its holding to 45 percent of A shares and 45 percent of B shares. Investor also issued warrants equivalent to 20 percent of the share capital to the shareholders in Investor entitling them to buy B shares in Scania.
1999
Investor sold B shares equivalent to 20 percent of the share capital through the above-mentioned warrant programme. In January 1999, Volvo began buying shares in Scania, reaching 21.5 percent of voting power in Scania by late April. In August, Investor reached an agreement with Volvo under which Investor sold its remaining shares in Scania to Volvo. At the same time, Volvo made an offer for the remaining shares outstanding. This agreement was conditional upon the European Union approving a merger between Scania and Volvo.
2000
The EU rejected Volvo’s plans to buy Scania. As a consequence of this, Investor sold A shares equivalent to 34 percent of voting power and 18.7 percent of share capital in Scania to Volkswagen. After this, Investor still controlled 15 percent of voting power and 9 percent of share capital in Scania. Meanwhile, Volvo controlled about 30 percent of voting power and 45 percent of share capital in Scania after its unsuccessful bid.
2002
Scania sold its 50 percent holding in the Swedish company Svenska Volkswagen AB to Volkswagen AG.
2003
Scania shares were de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange.
2004
Volvo sold its B shares in Scania to Deutsche Bank, which in turn sold them to the market. Volvo’s A shares were transferred to a new company called Ainax, which in turn was distributed to the shareholders in Volvo. Scania later presented an offer for all shares in Ainax, which was accepted by 96 percent of Ainax shareholders.
2006
MAN AG presented a hostile bid for Scania. MAN achieved ownership of 13.23 percent of share capital and 17.01 percent of voting power after the bid was rejected by both Volkswagen and Investor.
2008
On 3 March, Volkswagen and Investor reached an agreement under which Volkswagen acquired 134,711,900 A shares from Investor and the Wallenberg foundations. Volkswagen thereby increased its stake in Scania to 68.60 percent of voting power and 37.73 percent of share capital.
2009
Porsche presented a mandatory offer for Scania, since the company had increased its holding in Volkswagen to more than 50 percent and thereby gained indirect control of Scania. Porsche acquired nearly 8 percent of share capital and more than 2 percent of voting power in Scania. These shares were sold to Volkswagen, which thus increased its holding to 49.29 percent of share capital and 71.81 percent of voting power in Scania.
2011
On 9 November 2011, Volkswagen AG completed its acquisition of the majority shareholding in MAN SE. Volkswagen’s ownership thus amounted to the equivalent of 55.9 precent of the voting rights and 53.7 percent of the share capital in MAN. As a result of the acquisition, MAN’s holding in Scania shall be included in Volkswagen’s ownership of Scania. Volkswagen’s ownership of Scania thus amounted to the equivalent of 89.2 percent of the voting rights (formerly 71.8 percent) and 62.6 percent of the share capital (formerly 49.3 percent).
2014
On February 21, Volkswagen announced a public offer to the shareholders of Scania to tender all shares in Scania to Volkswagen at a price of SEK 200 in cash per share. On 13 May, Volkswagen reached over 90 percent of the shares and 5 June was the last of trading Scania shares on the stock exchange. Scania became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group.
2015-2018
In 2015, Volkswagen AG creates Volkswagen Truck & Bus GmbH to bundle its brands Scania, MAN and Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus. In 2016, the digital brand RIO was added and in 2018, Volkswagen Truck & Bus became TRATON GROUP.
2019
In 2019, TRATON GROUP was listed on Nasdaq Stockholm Stock Exchange and Frankfurt Stock Exchange.