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After 15 months of regulatory delays, shareholder resistance and one improved offer, Tata Motors has cleared the biggest hurdle in its takeover of Italian truck maker Iveco.
Shareholders representing 87.81% of Iveco’s shares accepted Tata’s offer by the October 26 deadline. Tata needed at least 80% support for the transaction to proceed.
All about the deal: Tata Motors wants to acquire Iveco’s commercial-vehicle business, which makes trucks, buses, engines and other transport equipment.
The company offered to purchase Iveco shares entirely in cash. Its latest offer values the deal at around €3.91 billion, or roughly ₹42,500 crore.
Iveco’s defence business is not included. That division is being sold separately to Italian defence company Leonardo.
What was the hurdle: Iveco is owned by many shareholders. Tata could not simply decide to buy the company and take control. Initially, they wanted investors holding at least 95% of Iveco to accept the offer. Reaching that level would have allowed it to use a simpler legal process to buy the remaining shares and remove Iveco from the Milan stock exchange.
But some minority shareholders resisted.
Activist investor Petrus Advisers argued that Tata’s offer was too low and undervalued Iveco. On October 9, it increased the price to €14.40 per share, adding €0.30 and taking the total potential payment to €3.91 billion.
The new price was around 33% higher than Iveco’s share price before reports of the takeover first emerged in July 2025.
Shareholders approved a proposal that reduced the minimum acceptance requirement from 95% to 80%. They also cleared an alternative legal route that could eventually help Tata reach full ownership.
Nearly 97 million shares were offered on October 26 alone, pushing total acceptance to 87.81%. Including shares held by Iveco itself.
This late surge was not entirely unexpected. Investors in tender offers often wait until the final hours to see whether the buyer will increase the price.
Tata did not blink again. Shareholders eventually accepted the €14.40 offer.
Why does Tata want Iveco: Tata Motors is India’s biggest commercial-vehicle company, but its presence in Europe and Latin America is relatively limited.
Iveco fills those gaps.
It has a strong European business, is a major commercial-vehicle company in Latin America and makes specialised products such as heavy-duty mining trucks and tractor-trailers that Tata does not currently offer at scale.
