Talk that Volkswagen will make a full takeover bid for German truckmaker MAN SE swelled on Tuesday when a German newspaper cited an unidentified company executive as saying an offer was looming.

Volkswagen Chairman Ferdinand Piech, also chairman of MAN, has dropped several hints this year that MAN is on his radar screen as he tries to revive plans for a three-way trucks alliance with Swedish unit Scania .

The departure of three top MAN executives within weeks has fueled speculation of a bid.

Both VW, which already holds a nearly 30 percent voting stake in the truckmaker, and MAN declined comment on the report by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, based in MAN's home town of Munich.

The offer will come, the paper quoted the executive as saying.

Shares in MAN rose as much as 4.2 percent and were up 3.5 percent at 54.62 euros at 0839 GMT (3:39 a.m. EST), outpacing a flat German blue chip index <.GDAXI>.

(Reporting by Michael Shields, Marilyn Gerlach and Jan Schwartz)

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