Daimler Trucks in no hurry to raise Kamaz stake

(chinatrucks.com, Dec.1, 2009)Daimler's (DAIGn.DE) industry leading trucks business is not in a rush to exercise an option to raise its 10 percent stake in Russia's Kamaz (KMAZ.MM) to a 25 percent and one share blocking minority.

"This could happen in two months or two years," Daimler Trucks chief Andreas Renschler said on Thursday in Stuttgart.

"We are in no hurry."

More important than the size of the stake is the access to the Russian market via the Kamaz dealer network that Daimler's Mercedes-Benz and Fuso brands get through their planned joint ventures with the Russian truckmaker.

Speculation has repeatedly surfaced that Daimler would expand its stake after it first scaled back plans to buy an interest in Kamaz.

In the second quarter of 2008, Daimler had started negotiations with the investment company Troika Dialog, which wanted to sell 42 percent of the shares in Kamaz. Daimler was then picked following a bidding process with other western truckmakers.

At the time, Russia was already Europe's largest truck market and sales of new trucks were expected to increase by about 20 percent over the next two years.

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