Daimler is reacquiring a stake in its old division Tognum, which supplies diesel engines and driveshafts to the German automaker. Daimler will buy the 22.3% stake for 585 million Euros. Tognum was previously a division of DaimlerChrysler (now Daimler) called MTU Friedrichshafen, but was sold off to the EQT investment group when DaimlerChrysler got too caught up with trying to sort out Chrysler and was unable to give MTU Friedrichshafen the attention it needed. This was back in 2005. Kind of like like Proton selling off MV Agusta actually.
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Paul Tan
After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history.
Paul, there is one big difference between the Tognum/MTU divestiture and return (in part) to the Daimler corporate fold: it can contribute to the ‘parent’ company.
MV was a black hole down which money had been poured for years before PROTON made that particular vanity purchase. MV’s ability to contribute to PROTON was fanciful at the best, delusional at worst, and people in the Industry knew this, even if the idea was never telegraphed to the Malaysian public.
When he read of the supposed synergies between MV an PROTON being bantered by the management in Shah Alam shortly after the purchase, Nobuhiko Kawamoto said to me “if there were ANY benefits or synergies between cars an motorcycles, the R&D centres of Honda would be under one roof, not separated by a lot of kilometresâ€.
He should know, since he used to run Honda.
With the one Euro sale, PROTON got off easy as anyone who knows how the industry works will tell you. The losses would have been worse by a few orders of magnitude if the new management was daffy enough to have kept MV. Fortunately, they aren’t nuts.
Any sailor worth his salt would know MTU is the BMW of ship propulsion. For a very long time I took it literally and thought they were owned by BMW since they were both german. However, locally, they were famous more for Military fast boat applications, where they really shine. Their speciality is Military application where they are a Brand leader. This is a totally niche market. The only reason is probably the possible growth from Detroit Diesel. Yes, again they are drawn to the US market. The Europeans have always touted the diesel engine as the greener evil.
It is not fair to compare MV Agusta with MTU. You will never see a Dolphin class submarine sharing the same hangar with a S Coupe. The only advantage would be sharing the same facilities to make turbos.
Should I say, the only apparent advantage is the turbo making/testing facilities. Oooh and their diesel engine would be developed by established players.
Daimler is reacquiring a stake in its old division Tognum, which supplies diesel engines and driveshafts to the German automaker. Daimler will buy the 22.3% stake for 585 million Euros. Tognum was previously a division of DaimlerChrysler (now Daimler) called MTU Friedrichshafen, but was sold off to the EQT investment group when DaimlerChrysler got too caught up with trying to sort out Chrysler and was unable to give MTU Friedrichshafen the attention it needed. This was back in 2005. Kind of like like Proton selling off MV Agusta actually.
Paul, there is one big difference between the Tognum/MTU divestiture and return (in part) to the Daimler corporate fold: it can contribute to the ‘parent’ company.
MV was a black hole down which money had been poured for years before PROTON made that particular vanity purchase. MV’s ability to contribute to PROTON was fanciful at the best, delusional at worst, and people in the Industry knew this, even if the idea was never telegraphed to the Malaysian public.
When he read of the supposed synergies between MV an PROTON being bantered by the management in Shah Alam shortly after the purchase, Nobuhiko Kawamoto said to me “if there were ANY benefits or synergies between cars an motorcycles, the R&D centres of Honda would be under one roof, not separated by a lot of kilometresâ€.
He should know, since he used to run Honda.
With the one Euro sale, PROTON got off easy as anyone who knows how the industry works will tell you. The losses would have been worse by a few orders of magnitude if the new management was daffy enough to have kept MV. Fortunately, they aren’t nuts.
MS
Any sailor worth his salt would know MTU is the BMW of ship propulsion. For a very long time I took it literally and thought they were owned by BMW since they were both german. However, locally, they were famous more for Military fast boat applications, where they really shine. Their speciality is Military application where they are a Brand leader. This is a totally niche market. The only reason is probably the possible growth from Detroit Diesel. Yes, again they are drawn to the US market. The Europeans have always touted the diesel engine as the greener evil.
It is not fair to compare MV Agusta with MTU. You will never see a Dolphin class submarine sharing the same hangar with a S Coupe. The only advantage would be sharing the same facilities to make turbos.
Should I say, the only apparent advantage is the turbo making/testing facilities. Oooh and their diesel engine would be developed by established players.