Continental, the German tyre and car parts maker, rejected a Continental's share price has suffered continued falls since its purchase last year of VDO, Siemens' car parts business, which makes electronic and electrical components. Continental took on more than €10 billion in debt after the €11.4 billion purchase of VDO.

Schaeffler is owned by Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler and her son Georg, who together were ranked 78th in last year's Forbes rich list with an estimated net worth of $8.7 billion (£4.3 billion).Yesterday, Volkswagen, the biggest customer of both companies, said that it viewed Schaeffler's move as positive but it wanted to see a quick resolution to the takeover approach.Europe's largest carmaker said that it did not want Continental to be broken up by its rival. Hans Dieter Poetsch, VW's chief financial officer, said: “We do view the approach of Schaeffler in principle as positive, under the framework conditions that we are not entering into a long battle, which at least would potentially carry the risk of deteriorating the operating business [of both companies].”