Mercedes CEO Ola Källenius is currently ruling out that the two major Chinese shareholders Baic and Geely founder Eric Li could further increase their shares of ten percent each and jointly strive for a blocking minority.
"That's not the case.
We have very good and strong relationships with our investors," said Källenius of the "Handelsblatt" according to a preliminary report.
Accordingly, the Baden-Württemberg Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann also rejects a possible takeover of power by Chinese investors at the Stuttgart car manufacturer: "We would not allow that at all."
Business and politics in Germany are currently discussing whether companies in this country have made themselves too dependent on the Chinese market and how and where they can possibly diversify their business.
The Middle Kingdom is now the most important sales market for the German automotive industry in particular.
Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes also have their own locations there, mostly together with Chinese companies.
At the same time, Mercedes is the one of the three major German automotive groups that does not have a major German shareholder – the Quandt family has a substantial stake in BMW, and the Porsche and Piech families in Volkswagen.
This also caused a stir when the Chinese Geely group got involved in Stuttgart.