FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German luxury car and commercial truckmaker Daimler <DAIGn.DE> is not in talks with Italian rival Fiat <FIA.MI> over the acquisition of its capital goods division Fiat Industrial, Daimler said on Wednesday.
While the Stuttgart-based group was not looking to buy the entire business as an Italian newspaper reported, it did leave plenty of room open for further speculation about a different tie-up.
"It's no secret that everyone talks with everyone in this industry," a Daimler spokesman said. "But there are no talks with Fiat on this subject."
Shares in Fiat had briefly jumped by more than 2 percent on Wednesday following a report in La Repubblica that Daimler had offered 9 billion euros for the Fiat Industrial assets this summer but Fiat wanted 10.5 billion and the deal was halted.
Fiat declined comment.
Analysts doubted whether there was any truth to the story, however, since only the truck operations of Fiat's Iveco unit would fit with Daimler.
"They would need to sell off the rest of Fiat Industrial just to get at Iveco -- an awful lot of effort to go through considering the truck business is not a particularly attractive asset nor are the chances are high that antitrust regulators would approve a deal," said Metzler analyst Juergen Pieper.
Fiat Industrial also includes Case New Holland, which makes agricultural machinery like tractors and combines, as well as on and off-road engine and components maker Fiat Powertrain Technologies.
Germany's manager magazin reported on Wednesday that Daimler Trucks chief Andreas Renschler had been in Italy for "negotiations" over the acquisition of Iveco.
The Daimler spokesman was not immediately able to comment on the manager magazin report.
(Reporting by Christiaan Hetzner, additional reporting by Ian Simpson in Milan)
