Volkswagen will acquire 20 percent of Suzuki Motor Corporation in the next few days.
Announcement is in the financial press in Germany and Japan. Suzuki is one of the largest manufacturers in the world with annual production of 2.6 million cars. What attracts the German giant, however, is the Japanese experience in production of small and mini cars.
In addition, Suzuki models are extremely popular in many emerging markets, such as in India, where they have dominating models like Swift and Alto. The Japanese company has a cooperative with the Indian Maruti which makes its presence in the market even bigger.
On the other hand inside Japan, Suzuki is the strongest player in the market for so-called K-cars (mini city cars).
So far, Suzuki has been an independent company without a serious partner in the industry. It had longstanding ties with General Motors which began in 1981 but because of the crisis Americans sold 17% of its stake in the Japanese company three years ago which was 20%. Last 3% GM sold a year ago.
With the entry of Volkswagen in Suzuki it will create many new opportunities such as the “merger” of the new generation of Polo and Swift, for example.
