Daimler mulls truckmaker buy: magazine

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German automaker Daimler (DAIGn.DE) is considering buying a truckmaker and sees Russia as an attractive country in which to be active, Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche told WirtschaftsWoche magazine in an interview.

"I could totally imagine it in the trucks business, although in some markets we are already so big that there would be cartel barriers and also it wouldn't make sense any more," he said in the interview published on Saturday.

"In trucks, we are in particular looking at possibilities to be active in Russia," Zetsche said.

Daimler, which makes Mercedes-Benz and Smart cars is also the world's biggest truckmaker.

Kamaz (KMAZ.MM), Russia's largest truckmaker, may sell a quarter of its shares for $1.25 billion this year to a strategic investor from the European auto sector, sources familiar with KAMAZ's plans told Reuters this week.

German truckmaker MAN (MANG.DE), which is pursuing a three-way truckmaking alliance with Volkswagen (VOWG.DE) and Scania (SCVb.ST), said this week it did not plan to buy the Kamaz stake.

Fiat's (FIA.MI) truckmaking unit Iveco, which plans its own joint venture in Russia, is also being discussed in the industry as a takeover target, the magazine said.

In its cars business, Zetsche said he saw acquisitions as unlikely for Daimler, which plans to expand its production capacities into eastern Europe to accommodate at least four new models based on the new A and B-class Mercedes.

He said Daimler was likely to decide this quarter on exactly where to build the factory, as its plant in the German city of Rastatt, which currently builds 270,000 cars per year, will not be able to cope with the planned volume for the new models.