A new name for the luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz Group AG would be formally made by its owner Daimler AG on February 1. It was almost a year ago that the truck and bus business unit of Daimler was spun off into a separate company. The CEO of the company is optimistic that this latest move will open up a new value for the shareholders of the company.
This latest step by the company is the latest in a series of structural changes for the automaker, which was founded in 1926 as Daimler-Benz AG, combining Daimler Motor Company with technical firm Benz & Cie.
In 1902, Daimler AG formally adopted the Mercedes brand, which was named after the daughter of an automobile entrepreneur.
"The goal is certainly to unleash the value potential of the company," Ola Kaellenius told reporters on Friday, without naming a specific target valuation for the firm currently worth just under 77 billion euros($85.70 billion).
"We have a real chance to raise the multiple."
Daimler Truck AG shares, which were spun off from Mercedes-Benz last December, have risen modestly since their market debut, trading at 32.23 euros on Friday. Mercedes-Benz shares have soared to their highest levels since 2015 after the spin-off was announced in February, reaching 74.25 on the day of the split, but have since trended slightly lower to trade at 71.15 euros.
Shareholders are increasingly rewarding traditional automakers, whose values are dwarfed by that of electric carmaker Tesla, for offering a clear electrification strategy of their own. The separation was meant to provide pure-play investors with a more differentiated product.
When asked if autonomous driving was as important to Mercedes-Benz as it was to Tesla, whose CEO Elon Musk declared on Thursday that he expected it to become the company's primary source of profit, Kaellenius said: "I share the opinion that there will more and more attractive use cases... it has significant business potential for us in the future."
(Source:www.nasdaq.com)
This latest step by the company is the latest in a series of structural changes for the automaker, which was founded in 1926 as Daimler-Benz AG, combining Daimler Motor Company with technical firm Benz & Cie.
In 1902, Daimler AG formally adopted the Mercedes brand, which was named after the daughter of an automobile entrepreneur.
"The goal is certainly to unleash the value potential of the company," Ola Kaellenius told reporters on Friday, without naming a specific target valuation for the firm currently worth just under 77 billion euros($85.70 billion).
"We have a real chance to raise the multiple."
Daimler Truck AG shares, which were spun off from Mercedes-Benz last December, have risen modestly since their market debut, trading at 32.23 euros on Friday. Mercedes-Benz shares have soared to their highest levels since 2015 after the spin-off was announced in February, reaching 74.25 on the day of the split, but have since trended slightly lower to trade at 71.15 euros.
Shareholders are increasingly rewarding traditional automakers, whose values are dwarfed by that of electric carmaker Tesla, for offering a clear electrification strategy of their own. The separation was meant to provide pure-play investors with a more differentiated product.
When asked if autonomous driving was as important to Mercedes-Benz as it was to Tesla, whose CEO Elon Musk declared on Thursday that he expected it to become the company's primary source of profit, Kaellenius said: "I share the opinion that there will more and more attractive use cases... it has significant business potential for us in the future."
(Source:www.nasdaq.com)
