Volvo abandons plan to sell Governmental Sales unit

Trucks and construction equipment maker Volvo said on Tuesday it had decided to end a sales process for its Governmental Sales business due to insufficient offers.

The Gothenburg-based firm, announced its plan to sell the business in November last year.

Governmental Sales, which has most of its 1,300 employees in France, manufactures military and other specialist vehicles for governments, the defence industry, peacekeeping forces and aid organisations.

A big part of the business is armoured vehicles maker Renault Trucks Defence, which Reuters reported in July had attracted offers from Franco-German tank maker KNDS as well as Belgian group CMI.

"We have previously announced our intention to divest thisbusiness but the offers we have received do not reflect its value. We have therefore decided to discontinue the divestment process”, Chief Financial Officer Jan Gurander said in a statement.

Volvo said the business has a strong order book.

But the unit`s sales account for around 1.5 percent of Volvo`s total sales, which amounted to 302 billion Swedish crowns ($37 billion) in 2016.

($1 = 8.1601 Swedish crowns)

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)