An agency from Amsterdam has probably come up with the new name for the group, which consists mainly of MAN and Scania and is supposed to have its headquarters in Munich. The first three letters are for transport, transformation and tradition, the last three for tonnage.

On June 28, 2019, the result of the IPO was announced. However, to the layperson, it always sounds as if companies were being completely sold. But it does not mean anything other than that a shareholder like sometimes the North Americans put some of their belongings in front of the garage on Saturdays and offer them for direct sale. No more and no less.

Ferrari, for example, had an initial public offering in 2015, this time on the New York Stock Exchange, better known as 'Wall Street'. Anyone who was shocked and thought that Fiat, already together with Chrysler, was finally parting company with its noble brand, was wrong. Originally only 9 percent were sold. One percent was added later, 10 percent remained with Enzo's son and 80 percent remained with the parent company.

In contrast to Traton, the share performed slightly better at $ 3 above issue value. If you divide 100 by the percent sold, you can deduce the company's value from the proceeds, which was thus $ 10 billion. Like the Ferraris themselves, Fiat/Chrysler sold small shares at an exclusive price. By the way, with just one share in your portfolio you are invited to the shareholders' meeting.

As I said, the parent company VW was not quite as successful. On the Frankfurt stock exchange, the share closed at EUR 26.45, which was slightly below the lowest issue price of EUR 27. After all, at 13.5 billion euros, Traton is worth significantly more than Ferrari in 2015. The parent company received 'only' a good 1.55 billion instead of 1.9. In the end, they want to have sold 10 percent of the shares for just under 1.8 billion.

The issue price was almost exactly reached on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Overall, the IPO is said to have gone smoothly. It had already been canceled once in the spring. The Porsche family, majority owners of VW, are rather skeptical of such processes. A possibly planned IPO by Ducati was only recently dropped.

It is important that the shares remain in a few trustworthy hands, as at VW, or are broadly diversified so that aggressive hedge funds can not easily get into the possession of the majority of the shares if the price goes through a low.

Overall, Traton is now just below the market value of Volvo Trucks, which together with Renault Trucks are on the road all over the world. You can see that there is still some catching up to do in Munich. It will be interesting what the billions are ultimately spent on, e.g. for a battery cell factory or the acquisition of a North American manufacturer. After all, since 2015 there have been as many Chinese as European manufacturers of commercial vehicles among the top six.