WRAPUP 1-VW boss on the road to reshaping European autos =2

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By Christiaan Hetzner and Niklas Pollard

GENEVA/STOCKHOLM, March 3 (Reuters) - Ferdinand Piech made two giant strides on Monday towards forging a global automotive empire by gathering Swedish truckmaker Scania into the arms of Volkswagen and preparing Porsche in turn to take control of VW.

The bold strokes position Piech -- the 70-year-old Volkswagen (VOWG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) chairman whose Austrian family controls Porsche (PSHG_p.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) -- as the architect of a group making everything from small cars to luxury autos and heavy trucks.

VW will take majority control of Scania (SCVb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research) in a $4.4 billion deal that brings it a major step closer to its goal of creating Europe's truck market leader along with German rival MAN (MANG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research).

The move to buy out Sweden's Wallenberg family ends a paralysing stalemate over the future of Scania since early last year when it fended off a hostile bid from MAN, in which VW, Europe's biggest carmaker, owns 30 percent.

The two sides had made scant progress on a friendly deal being pushed by Piech.

"This is a major step forward for all parties involved," Volkswagen Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn told a news conference in Stockholm, stressing that uncertainty over Scania's ownership had finally been laid to rest.

"One could say that the company has been in play since January 1999. That is a very long period," Scania Chief Executive Leif Ostling added, referring to a bid from Volvo (VOLVb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research) that fell foul of European antitrust regulators.