Scania

"But EQT’s best deal so far, one of the best ever made in Europe according to Conni Jonsson, was German Tognum. It yielded a profit equivalent to more than forty times the invested capital. Tognum built diesel engines, but the previous owner, Daimler-Chrysler, had let the subsidiary idle for a while. EQT made sure to use the expertise available in Tognum to broaden sales. They invested in a new generation of engines, targeted new markets, for example engines for large boats and ships, and thus increased both profit and sales. So how did EQT, a rather young and unknown company, manage to get to the negotiating table? The seller, the newly merged automotive group Daimler-Chrysler, mainly wanted to avoid the business ending up with their worst competitor, the truck manufacturer MAN. The bidder Carlyle was not a suitable buyer either, since Tognum had business with Cuba, a red flag for American companies. Instead, it became the little EQT. But they weren’t completely unknown, after all, Investor was a major shareholder in Daimler’s competitor Scania. It became an important deal not only because it was profitable, but because it marked an entry into the German market. Now, people there knew who the EQT people were when they called and wanted to do business."

"But EQT’s best deal so far, one of the best ever made in Europe according to Conni Jonsson, was German Tognum. It yielded a profit equivalent to more than forty times the invested capital. Tognum built diesel engines, but the previous owner, Daimler-Chrysler, had let the subsidiary idle for a while. EQT made sure to use the expertise available in Tognum to broaden sales. They invested in a new generation of engines, targeted new markets, for example engines for large boats and ships, and thus increased both profit and sales. So how did EQT, a rather young and unknown company, manage to get to the negotiating table? The seller, the newly merged automotive group Daimler-Chrysler, mainly wanted to avoid the business ending up with their worst competitor, the truck manufacturer MAN. The bidder Carlyle was not a suitable buyer either, since Tognum had business with Cuba, a red flag for American companies. Instead, it became the little EQT. But they weren’t completely unknown, after all, Investor was a major shareholder in Daimler’s competitor Scania. It became an important deal not only because it was profitable, but because it marked an entry into the German market. Now, people there knew who the EQT people were when they called and wanted to do business."

"This is Östling’s explanation for the unprecedented successes at Scania. He has described in the magazine Ny Teknik how the business leader Curt Nicolin said the following to him: “You don’t have to be particularly gifted to run a company like this. Try to understand what is embedded in the company’s culture, that is the company’s asset, and build on that.”"

"Under the umbrella of the holding company, the brands Dywidag, Züblin, and Heilit+Woerner Bau GmbH are maintained alongside the group’s main brand, Strabag – the latter had come to Strabag with Walter Bau. However, the entire company network consists of more than 80 subsidiaries – from A like Abfall Behandlung Recycling GmbH to Z like Züblin Umwelttechnik GmbH. At first glance, this may seem confusing, but in the world of large corporations, it is entirely common for numerous brands to gather under the umbrella of a holding company. For example, the Dutch-British consumer goods corporation Unilever operates with 40 brands: from Axe, Becel, or Coral, via Lätta, Lipton, and Lux, to Thea, Timotei, and Unox. The largest European automotive group, Volkswagen, has ten other brands alongside its main brand VW, from Audi, Bentley, and Bugatti, through Scania, Seat, and Skoda, to Porsche."