Following a near four-year dispute, Suzuki has bought back a 19.9% stake held by Volkswagen for 460bn yen ($3.8bn; €3.4bn).

The two carmakers founded a partnership in 2009 to explore fuel-efficient vehicles and expansion into new markets but both parties accused each other of failing their contractual obligations and Suzuki filed for arbitration in 2011.

Last month saw an international arbitration court order Volkswagen to dispose of its shareholding.

In a statement released today (17 September), Suzuki said that at this stage it does not foresee any need to amend its forecast for its consolidated results for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2016..

Ana Nicholls, automotive analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said of the news: “This deal ends what has been a very acrimonious partnership between Volkswagen and Suzuki. The German company bought its stake in 2010 in the hope of capitalising on Suzuki’s dominance of the Indian market (through Maruti Suzuki), which would have added to Volkswagen’s own leadership of the Chinese market. But the dispute over technology transfers soured the relationship very quickly. Suzuki has spent the last four years trying to get its stake back, making it hard for its manager to plot a long-term strategy.

“The stake sale, which follows an arbitration ruling in August, comes at a good time for Suzuki, whose sales are rising on the back of strong performances in Japan and India. The company has a remarkably large international footprint for a relatively small producer, with 65 overseas subsidiaries, which gives it a good spread of risks and opportunities. But there remains a question-mark over the company’s size: with annual vehicle sales of 2.6m (excluding motorbikes) it falls well short of the 5m normally seen as the minimum for a viable mass car producer. After their prolonged scrap with Volkswagen, managers will be wary of striking anything more than limited partnership deals.

“As for Volkswagen, it claims the sale will have a “positive effect on the Company’s earnings and liquidity”. It is also reserving the right to claim damages from Suzuki, however, which threatens to prolong the dispute for a while longer.”