Europe's biggest carmaker Volkswagen AG said Monday it had acquired the majority stake in the Turin-based design house Italdesign Giugiaro SpA (IDG), reported dpa.
Volkswagen said it now holds a 90.1-per-cent stake in IDG, which will help with the further development and design of new VW models.
"Italdesign has now become a permanent member of the Volkswagen Group," said VW chief Martin Winterkorn. "Given the full order books and numerous interesting projects, the perspectives are better than ever."
German-based Volkswagen has worked for decades with IDG.
The design company's founder Giorgetto Giugiaro has among other projects drafted the designs for several of the VW group's major vehicles including the first Golf as well as the first Passat and the Audi 80.