MAN SE: История немецкого машиностроения и поглощение Traton SE

German mechanical engineering company

MAN SE (abbreviation of Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürnberg, ) was a manufacturing and engineering company based in Munich, Germany. Its primary output was commercial vehicles and diesel engines through its MAN Truck & Bus and MAN Latin America divisions, and participation in the manufacturer Sinotruk. MAN SE was majority owned by Traton, the heavy commercial vehicle subsidiary of automaker Volkswagen AG, until August 2021 when Traton completed a squeeze out of all remaining shareholders and formally merged MAN SE into Traton SE, meaning the former subsidiaries of MAN SE were now directly owned by Traton, and MAN SE ceased to exist.

MAN traces its origins back to 1758, when the "St. Antony" ironworks commenced operation in Oberhausen, as the first heavy industry enterprise in the Ruhr region. In 1808, the three ironworks "St. Antony", "Gute Hoffnung" (English: "Good Hope"), and "Neue Essen" (English: "New Forges") merged, to form the Hüttengewerkschaft und Handlung Jacobi (English: "Jacobi Iron And Steel Works Union And Trading Company"), Oberhausen, which was later renamed Gutehoffnungshütte (GHH). MAN ended production and sales in India and sold the Pithampur plant back to Force Motors in 2018. In September 2006, MAN produced an offer for the take over of the Swedish competitor Scania AB. The European Commission approved the takeover on 14 December. Nevertheless, MAN voluntarily withdrew the offer on 23 January 2007, after Scania's major shareholders Volkswagen AG and the influential Wallenberg family had declined the offer. On 24 December 2008, MAN published to possess further stock options of Scania and to therefore maintain more than 20% of the voting rights. As of October 2019, MAN SE still owns 17.37% of the voting rights in Scania, with the remainder of Scania being directly owned by Volkswagen Group's heavy commercial vehicle subsidiary, Traton SE. In 2008, the MAN group celebrated its 250th anniversary with numerous events, such as exhibitions in several museums, a vintage car tour with the motto "MAN on the road again", and a great anniversary gala. At the beginning of December 2008, MAN took over Volkswagen's Brazilian truck and bus operation, Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus, putting the division under the control of MAN Latin America. Therewith, MAN now is a market leader in Brazil, with a market share of 30%. Since May 2009, the group is incorporated as European corporation MAN SE. In July 2009, MAN published to merge the two divisions, MAN Turbo and MAN Diesel, into one business area called Power Engineering. In addition, the group contracted a strategic partnership with Chinese truck manufacturer Sinotruk, purchasing 25% + 1 share of the company. In the course of this focusing process, many smaller subsidiaries and divisions have been sold. In 2009, investigators of the Munich Prosecutor's Office uncovered a corruption affair, in which MAN had been bribing business partners and governments in over 20 countries from 2001 to 2007, to get large orders for buses and trucks. MAN CEO Håkan Samuelsson and other board members had to resign. The board of directors appointed Dr. Ing. Georg Pachta Reyhofen, the former CEO of MAN Diesel, as successor. On 17 December 2009, Pachta Reyhofen was assigned as speaker of the board and CEO of MAN SE by the board of directors.

In July 2011, Volkswagen AG acquired a 55.9% voting stake and 53.7% of the share capital in MAN SE. Pending regulatory approval, Volkswagen planned to merge MAN and Scania AB to create Europe's largest truck maker. The combined trucks group is planned to save about 400 million euros per year, mainly by bundling procurement. Regulatory approval was granted, and the takeover was completed in November 2011. In April 2012, MAN SE announced that Volkswagen had increased its interest to a 73.0% voting stake and 71.08% of the share capital. On 6 June 2012, Volkswagen AG announced that it had increased its share of voting rights in MAN SE to 75.03%, paving the way for a domination agreement to be put in place. From January 2019, MAN's Power Engineering division, made up of MAN Energy Solutions (formerly MAN Diesel and Turbo) and MAN SE's 76% stake in RENK AG were sold to the Volkswagen Group, leaving MAN SE as the holding company for commercial vehicle units, MAN Truck & Bus, and MAN Latin America, under the responsibility of Volkswagen's subsidiary, Traton SE. In March 2019, MAN SE announced that 94.36% of its shares were held by Traton. In February 2020, Traton announced that it intends to merge MAN SE with Traton to simplify the latter's overall structure. As a result of the merger, MAN Truck & Bus, Scania AB, and Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus will become wholly owned, direct subsidiaries of Traton. In September 2020, the company announced that it will be cutting over 9,500 job positions at its MAN Truck & Bus division, as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic economic effects. The company made the move to generate €1.8 billion of cost savings by 2023.

In 2011, a former manager in the company was charged with bribery of Turkmen state officials in exchange for project contracts in 2002. The trial began in Munich in 2019 after a delay of the initial trial set for 2016. The MAN manager was suspected in giving 8.4 million euros in bribes in 2002–2007 to the head of the state owned Turkmennebit company, Saparmammet Veliev.