Ductalk

After Investindustrial’s Andrea Bonomi announced to the Financial Times that the private-capital firm intended to sell Ducati for a cool 1 billion euros, the whole financial world began probing for the names of the potential suitors.
The motorcycling world did the same, but with a different spirit: Ducati ranks high on the roster of most-loved motorcycle brands, and enthusiasts around the world are concerned about the “qualifications” of ownership candidates: The buyer needs to be able to keep Ducati on its present course of building high-performance, high-technology and high-style motorcycles.
This type of well-guided, respectful stewardship did not take place when the Texas Pacific Group equity fund took over Ducati in the 1990s, nor even when Investindustrial acquired the majority holding in the brand from TPG in 2008. Despite this, the strength of Ducati’s image has grown enormously thanks to the quality of its models, as well as from its success in World Superbike and MotoGP racing (despite recent setbacks in the latter). Even the hiring of Valentino Rossi, for the little it produced on the track, enhanced Ducati’s image.
In the days since the announcement, the list of potential acquirers included (an improbable from the beginning) BMW to Volkswagen (through is subsidiary Audi) to Mercedes-AMG to India’s Mahindra and Hero, just to name the most visible, powerful transportation brands. Let me limit my guesswork to the two names that appeared most credible from the beginning: Mercedes-AMG and Audi....more

Audi is on the brink of acquiring Italian motorcycle maker Ducati for around 870 million euros ($1.2 billion) to 875 million.

FRANKFURT: German luxury carmaker Audi is on the brink of acquiring Italian motorcycle maker Ducati for around 870 million euros ($1.2 billion) to 875 million, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

"The due diligence is not yet completed. There are still a few issues that need to be examined," the source said, confirming a weekly German magazine report.

Manager Magazin, citing company sources, said on Friday the acquisition of Ducati was "as good as perfect" and the acquisition price would be between 870 million euros and 875 million, including debts of around 200 million.

It said the valuation of a few real estate properties still needed to be sorted out but the deal was not expected to collapse over this issue...more

  "Under the Audi wing (hence with Lamborghini and Bugatti) Ducati engineering will improve and quality will become simply brilliant all the time but the risk is it could become a little diluted by the ‘Group’ approach to engineering...."

The news swirled around the Geneva press days a few weeks ago that Audi would be the Volkswagen Group division to place a bid for Ducati, which is up for sale. Volkswagen Group has made no formal comment about the story, but senior officers have.

Why buy a motor bike manufacturer? Well the visionary leader and Chairman of Volkswagen Group Ferdinand Piech is a very big fan of Ducati, and is owns some Ducati bikes. Next, within the Audi group there is Bugatti and – more significantly – Lamborghini. Finally there is the BMW Motorrad division, which has made bikes for many decades with variable reputation but consistent commercial success – a division which upon the acquisition of Husqvarna bike division from the Electrolux group, celebrated the fresh thinking it brought to BMW. The Ducati Current investor Investindustrial has done much to re-build the company. Essentially Ducati customers want a slice of Italian style, at a high but not stratospheric price, along with devastating performance.

One senior Volkswagen Group person was quoted that Ducati would offer light weight engine technology to the Group. This is a flawed argument:...more

It has been almost a year now since we broke the news that Ducati Motor Holding was up for sale, and I still can’t tell if the appropriate metaphor for the ongoing acquisition is a game of musical chairs or Russian roulette. Vying for a seat or putting the chamber to its temple, our latest contestant in “Who Wants to Buy Ducati” is Audi, the four-ringed German car manufacturer. Reported to have a right of first refusal, Audi allegedly has until mid-April to finalize a deal with Investindustrial (Ducati’s main investor) to buy Ducati from the Italian investment group.
Though Ducati sold over 40,000 motorcycles in 2011, the Italian company has roughly €800 million in debt on its books. This means that any company interested in buying Ducati would have to assume the Italian company’s debt onto its own books, which changes the actual purchase price of Ducati dramatically. For its part, Audi is rumored to be making an offer in the €850 million range, which would put the actual purchase value of Ducati at over €50 million, and could put as much as €100 million on the table for Investindustrial to take.
For a bit of history, Ducati’s first suitor was AMG (read: Mercedes-Benz), and while Ducati was keen to sell to the german sport car manufacturer, the Stuttgart natives were reportedly less enthusiastic about the idea. Though AMG and Ducati didn’t enter into a shotgun wedding, the two parties did have a quick torrid affair that resulted in the two companies sharing their marketing efforts, which included the creation of the Ducati Diavel AMG. With the romance reportedly ending late last year, Ducati continued to flirt across the bar with several other brands, and even sent some very ouvert signals with the mention of a private offering and the rumor of a public listing on the Hong Kong stock index....more