Harley Davidson sold MV Agusta back to original owner for 1€

[Safehaven]

Someone just made a lot of money, but it wasn't the MoCo..

They bought MVAgusta Some time ago, restructured it and cleared it's dept, totaling somewhere around 109M€ costs in 2008. Now when MV Agusta is starting to sell again, they decide to get rid of this brand and sell it back to the original owner, the Italian Castiglioni group.

Strange decisions they make, I don't understand business sometimes..

Just thought I'd share the news.

Source: Harley-Davidson verkoopt MV Agusta voor 1 euro - AutoKanaal
(Dutch version)

 

[dbmg]

This is why my opinion is one that the MOCO need to concentrate all efforts on what they do best build HARLEYS. (ie:no shirts hats trucks etc.) With all the buzz about the company now days hopefully the repeat of AMF years will not happen.

 

[Jack Klarich]

This is why my opinion is one that the MOCO need to concentrate all efforts on what they do best build HARLEYS. (ie:no shirts hats trucks etc.) With all the buzz about the company now days hopefully the repeat of AMF years will not happen.

AMF poured tons of money into the MOCO but got greedy and produced too many bikes that ended up in Harley Hospital, no joke look it up, and they invested in the equipment to make the 5 speed and OK the Evo project:s

 

[melb_ourne]

Yes. I would buy that for a dollar.. or euro

 

[larryjmiller]

Took me 40 years to save up for a Harley. I'll have to work to a hundred or so to be able to afford an MV. Kinda like really expensive cigars or booze. I have to stay away from that 'spensive stuff for fear I'll like it and won't like the stuff I can afford. Fun to dream though...HD knows what they're doing.

 

[martin14]

Yes. I would buy that for a dollar.. or euro

umm, bit more to it than that.


HD bought MV for 109 million euros, around 150 million USD.

The 1 euro sale price also included HD paying out
about 20 million euros to retire various MV debts.



If you added it all up, you would be looking at something around 200 million USD,
something we will paying for for a long time.


Someone must be rolling on the floor laughing, and it isn't HD...
or the shareholders...

or us.


Whoever did this deal should be fired.

 

[Retrop]

The CEO who made the MV purchase is already gone. What transpired was that the MOCO was in deep kimshee and was already writing off a lot of debt to clear up the balance sheet. When in a situation like this the new CEO will often times throw everything in the book out the door in order to clear the balance sheet resulting in a huge, huge writeoff. They have already taken hundreds of million in write off and are now working on growing sales again. Unfortunately growth has not occurred yet and they are stuck with sluggish sales in an environment that shows little or no hope of improving any time soon. On the positive side, they have pretty much written off most of the problems with the financial lending side of the company. The company is now concentrating on growth outside the U.S., such as India. That is a pretty good reason to build a factory over there, don't you agree?

 

[NEWHD74FAN]

Making a bad deal in a list of making bad deals...taking the hit and moving on is just a part of business. When hemmoraging precious case for debts and market that does not show any immediate gains in the short or long term, sometimes you have to walk away and concentrate on the core business that got you there.

It is sad that MOCO was not able to make the most of a situation when they did the purchase. MVA was already having problems, but had lots of potential, just the executive decision to capitalize on the marque strengths and merging of V-Twin technologies to better the sum of all the parts was too little forward thinking and the window of opportunity and momentum was lost. Both companies are better off separate...this is a depression, not a recession and companies are struggling to stay alive.