Daimler investors are zealous for truck unit sale-paper

Recently, Some institutional investors in German carmaker Daimler favour a sale of the company's truck business but would prefer the company wait to make such a move, German daily Handelsblatt reported.

"In the medium-term we see a sale of the truck unit as a positive as the truck business is very cyclical and there are only limited synergies available between the units," DWS fund manager Stefan Bauknecht told the paper in a preview of a story to be published on Tuesday.

Bauknecht added, however, that the time was not right for Daimler to pursue a spin-off or outright sale.
"A listing would not be successful," Bauknecht said, in view of low valuations and a cyclical downturn that is expected to last until 2009. "Apart from that I don't believe it would produce a tough bidding war."

Thomas Koerfgen, managing director of SEB Asset Management, told the paper a spin-off would bring out the value of the company's individual units more clearly, but also said the market environment was not right for a sale.

A Daimler spokesman told the paper: "A spin-off of the truck group is not a topic for us."

Daimler's truck unit generated almost a quarter of the group's total operating profit of 8.7 billion euros last year.

Earlier this month, Daimler denied that management was considering any type of spin-off or sale of the company's trucks business after a report in Der Spiegel magazine cited works council opposition to such plans.

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