BlackRock Funds Raise Stake In Daimler To 5.7%

U.S. fund manager BlackRock Inc (BLK) has raised its stake in German car maker Daimler AG (DAI.XE) to around 5.7%.

Daimler said Thursday it has been informed by BlackRock that the company surpassed the 5% threshold on Aug. 11 and raised its stake to 5.72% the same day.

A Daimler spokeswoman told Dow Jones Newswires that this is the combined stake of all BlackRock subsidiaries.

Funds managed by BlackRock obviously took advantage of the recent weakness in Daimler shares for purchases. The stock traded at EUR34.32 at 1137 GMT, down from around EUR53 in late July.

In December 2009, BlackRock held 3.9% in Daimler after surpassing the 3% threshold.

The 5.7% stake makes BlackRock one of Daimler's largest shareholders. Other major shareholders are Abu Dhabi's government-linked Aabar Investments, which bought a 9% stake in 2009 and Kuwait, which owns 6.9%.

France's Renault S.A. (RNO.FR) and Japan's Nissan Motor Co. (7201.TO) bought a combined 3.1% stake in Daimler in 2010, when the three car makers agreed on a business alliance.

A BlackRock spokeswoman in Germany said that the investment firm doesn't comment on the size of a stake or the companies in which it invests. BlackRock has no active shareholder policy and changes in stakes often result from fund managers' decisions and could also stem from changes made by exchange-traded funds, she added.

-By Stefanie Haxel and Nico Schmidt, Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69 29725 500; unternehmen.de@dowjones.com

(Alexandra Edinger contributed to this article.)

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