The Fiat Group is set to be split up when the carmaking activities including its 20 percent stake in Chrysler Group are separated from the rump of its other industrial assets which primarily comprise of agricultural-and-construction equipment maker CNH Global and trucks-to-buses unit Iveco. It is the latter division that Daimler, the world's biggest truck maker, is said to have been most closely eying up.

Daimler holds just under a quarter of the Western European truck market and slotting Iveco into the mix would tip its slice up to around one-third, a share that would likely trigger antitrust investigations. Daimler is presently riding high on the back of a sharp revival in demand for trucks this year after the worldwide market slumped by a half in 2009 and its sales are up by a third so far this year. It's key rivals, Scania and Volvo, are also enjoying strong growth. Daimler Trucks expects to hit one billion euros in earnings by the end of the year. Year-on-year for the month just gone Daimler saw surging sales and key growth areas included Latin America (+68 percent), Indonesia (+76 percent) and Eastern Europe (+129 percent). Between August 2009 and August 2010, Daimler Trucks managed to boost its sales by 64 percent in the four BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries and by an even more spectacular 75 percent in the so-called "Next 11" countries (Egypt, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, South Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkey and Vietnam). In total, its sales in these countries rose by 71 percent and they accounted for almost 40 percent of total sales at Daimler Trucks.

Without quoting sources this morning la Repubblica said that a take-over could be on the cards again next year once the Fiat Industrial division has been listed. Analysts reckon that the spun-off industrial assets could be valued at as much as 13 billion euros. However Daimler poured cold water on its interest in Fiat's assets today: "There are no talks on this with Fiat," said a Daimler spokesman. "In our industry at this time, everyone is talking with everyone and so are we."