VW CFO says not ruling out acquisitions forever

BERLIN (Reuters) - German carmaker Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) has no plans for acquisitions at present but said this didn't mean Europe's largest automotive group will sit still on purchases for good.

"I cannot commit to a term like forever," VW finance chief Hans Dieter Poetsch said on Thursday during a call with analysts on the carmaker's second-quarter results.

VW is focused on carrying out an efficiency drive at its ailing core passenger-car division to boost profitability and step up cost savings at the VW brand to 5 billion euros per year from 2017, the CFO said.

"It will take a decent amount of time to get this running and working," Poetsch said.

Wolfsburg-based VW earlier this month denied a press report saying it was seeking to buy U.S. truck maker Paccar. VW subsequently said it had no takeovers on its agenda when commenting on a separate report claiming it was planning to bid for Fiat Chrysler.($1 = 0.7469 Euros)

(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by David Holmes)