Daimler Trucks is being prepared for a stockmarket listing, German business media have reported, quoting Daimler AG sources.

Such a spinoff has been rumoured before, particularly since the Daimler group began creating independent subsidiaries under its umbrella – market analysts quick to point out that this makes it easier to split them and list them separately.

The newspaper Handelsblatt said that Daimler AG is planning an initial public offering of Daimler Trucks late this year. The trucks division, of course, includes the Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner, FUSO and Western Star truck makes.

It said that Daimler wanted to unlock the value of the truck unit – and other German media suggested that Mercedes-Benz has been under financial pressure because of its heavy investment in zero-emission electric cars and its hefty fines for diesel engine emission-cheating cases from the past decade.

The rival Volkswagen group floated its TRATON truck division in 2019 to put the business on an independent footing.