“FRANKFURT. One of the year’s biggest bidding contests in Germany is entering its final round. According to information obtained by the F.A.Z., interested parties presented their concepts to management this week regarding Everllence, Volkswagen’s multibillion-euro marine engine manufacturer; talks with union representatives are scheduled already.
As things stand, bidders are expected to submit their final price offers. Volkswagen could make a decision that same week. Insiders estimate the unit's value at around €8.5 billion. Financial sources indicate that the investment firms CVC, Bain, and EQT are in the running for a majority stake in Everllence—with the latter bidding as part of an unusual consortium alongside Volkswagen’s principal shareholder, Porsche SE, and major shareholder Qatar.
Everllence is the new name for the long-established division formerly known as MAN Diesel & Turbo, which for a few years was called MAN Energy Solutions (MAN ES).
VW acquired a majority stake in the business about fifteen years ago and had previously attempted to sell it in 2019. That initial attempt failed. Now, VW plans to divest a 51 percent stake in Everllence. The Wolfsburg-based group declined to comment on the process when asked. The private equity firms are also not commenting.
According to its own figures, Everllence generated revenue of €4.9 billion last year with a workforce of 16,200. The Augsburg-based company does not disclose profit figures; industry experts estimate its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA)—a metric commonly used as a basis for valuation—to between 700 and 800 million euros last year.
Marine engines account for the lion's share of the business; the company is considered the global market leader in this sector.
The two-stroke engines can be as large as a single-family home and generate over 100,000 horsepower. However, the company also supplies gas and steam turbines, power plant technology, and reactors for the chemical industry, as well as systems that power and cool data centers.
Driven by the data center boom, this represents a potential growth segment that adds an extra layer of upside potential to the deal. Volkswagen set the sales process in motion late last summer by mandating investment banks Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, according to insiders. The three aforementioned private equity firms made the shortlist and submitted preliminary offers earlier this month, outlining their plans regarding locations and jobs. Reportedly, no specific price was requested at that stage; interested parties merely indicated a rough price range.
Price is likely to be just one of the key criteria in this transaction, owing to a unique voting dynamic within the supervisory board. This is because EQT is bidding in partnership with two major VW shareholders who hold seats on the oversight body. Two of the ten shareholder representatives are linked to Qatar, and four to Porsche SE. Reportedly, these six individuals will recuse themselves from the vote due to a potential conflict of interest.
Consequently, employee representatives on the supervisory board hold a clear majority—and thus an unusual degree of influence rarely seen in M&A processes. Financial investors will likely need to show a significant willingness to make concessions. This unique situation is also cited as the reason why Volkswagen is not immediately awarding the contract after receiving final bids: the process is evidently being conducted with particular formal rigor to ensure no legal basis for creating a potential target for acquisition. VW would retain a 49 percent stake following a transaction. Scandinavia’s EQT and Porsche are already well-acquainted through their joint investment in the transport provider Flix, which operates the long-distance bus company FlixBus and the Deutsche Bahn competitor Flixtrain.
When VW initiated the IPO of its commercial vehicle division, Traton, in 2018, the Wolfsburg-based group separated MAN ES and the transmission specialist Renk from the rest of the business of its truck and bus manufacturer, MAN. Together with the Scania brand, the latter was intended to form a pure-play commercial vehicle group under the Traton umbrella. Renk and MAN ES, by contrast, were slated for sale—a step that was indeed taken in Renk’s case, with the company going to the financial investor Triton. Things turned out differently for MAN ES, however, as the coronavirus pandemic impacted the global economy.” [1]
1. Deal um Schiffsmotoren von VW naht: Frühere MAN-Sparte im Fokus von Finanzinvestoren - auch Porsche mischt mit. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; Frankfurt. 13 June 2026: 28. KLAUS MAX SMOLKA
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