Former MAN SE execs near damages deal on bribe probe - source

BERLIN Aug 14 (Reuters) - German truckmaker MAN SE is close to an agreement with former chief executive Hakan Samuelsson and other erstwhile managers on damage payments they will make related to a 2009 bribery probe, a person familiar with the matter said.

Talks between MAN and Directors and Officers Liability Insurance (D&O), which will fund the payments, have also been proceeding well, the person said on Tuesday on condition he not be identified because the matter was confidential.

Samuelsson, his former finance chief Karlheinz Hornung and Anton Weinmann, the former head of MAN's truck-making division, have already agreed with the Munich-based company on the size of damage payments, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Tuesday, without citing the source of the information.

MAN paid 150.6 million euros ($186 million) fines in December 2009 to resolve an investigation into alleged payments by its truck and turbine divisions to potential customers.

Samuelsson, Hornung and Weinmann all quit in November 2009 following a probe in May that year when investigators raided company sites and private homes.

Samuelsson has agreed to pay a low single-digit million euro amount while Hornung and Weinmann will pay six-digit amounts in payments, the newspaper said, adding that the settlement required the approval of D&O, which provides liability insurance for company executives.

A spokesman for MAN, which is owned by Europe's largest carmaker Volkswagen, declined to comment.

Weinmann is accused of complicity to bribery and his case will get a first hearing at a Munich-based court on Thursday. ($1 = 0.8096 euro) (Reporting by Irene Preisinger and Jens Hack; Writing By Andreas Cremer; Editing by Dan Lalor)