Goldman Sachs, Citi and BNP Paribas will help Daimler with equity workstream in the spin-off preparations, while JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Citi and BNP will help on the debt side, they added.

Daimler and the banks declined to comment or were not immediately available for comment.

Earlier on Wednesday, the world's largest truck and bus maker said that its plan to spin off Daimler Trucks will allow it to become more profitable and focus more on developing technologies to cut carbon emissions.

Daimler said the truck business had seen a recovery in the fourth quarter, especially in North America and Europe, selling 121,000 units, almost double that of the second quarter, when sales were hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

For 2021, Daimler Trucks forecasts revenue to be significantly above the prior-year level and is aiming for a significant increase in adjusted return on sales to 6-7%, up from 2% in 2020.

By Arno Schuetze