MV Agusta headed down the crapper?

[RantyDave]

Oh dear. Proton have sold their controlling stake in MV for ... ummm ... one euro.

http://www.motorcycledaily.com/05january06_mvsale.htm

Anyone wishing they had bought 58% of MV Agusta may want to remember the company has a debt of US$55M. Which would buy Dover enough gixxer thou's to last maybe a year or two.

Dave

[thehollowmen]

Which would buy Dover enough gixxer thou's to last maybe a year or two.

bwahahhahaha stop being so mean to poor Dover
bwahhahahahahaha

[The_Dover]

which would buy dover enough gixxer thou's to last maybe a year or two.

dave

with spare change for a few f4 1000's just in case of a rainy day...

[Mental Trousers]

Hmmm. Guess there's going to be a sudden flood of very cheap second hand MV's on the market soon.

[onearmedbandit]

You sure? I don't see the price of an already desirable bike dropping so significantly.

[Mental Trousers]

Well if a huge company like Proton just write off the millions that they poured into MV like that, it doesn't look good. I wouldn't be looking to buy one after seeing that because if they end up bankrupt then the spare parts dry up.

[Big Dave]

Oh dear. Proton have sold their controlling stake in MV for ... ummm ... one euro.

Ironic that it costs $30K for one MV - yet you can have ALL of them for 2 bucks?
In hindsight you can also see that a marriage of Malaysian and Italian wouldn't be one made in heaven either.

It's a beautiful product - be interesting to know where the losses were - the brochures etc are the most expensive productions I've seen for automotive product.

[RantyDave]

Ironic that it costs $30K for one MV - yet you can have ALL of them for 2 bucks?

Don't forget the small issue of taking on a US$55M debt in the process.

It's a beautiful product - be interesting to know where the losses were - the brochures etc are the most expensive productions I've seen for automotive product.

Well, the R&D on your own engines can't come cheap. We could no doubt debate whether or not Cagiva's are MV's with Suzuki engines then use that to work out what the per-block cost on an MV engine is. I suspect even that is insignificant compared to the channel cost. Imagine all those MV's sitting in showrooms round the world ... the spares sitting around in warehouses ... and over the last year or so with the release of the F4 1000 and Brutale 910 they would have had to fill it all up again.

Still, give it six months then it'll be cheap MV's for all! Provided you don't mind getting a little creative with your maintenance that is.

Dave

[Sniper]

Bugger, so does that mean the F4 Augusta will stop gracing our roads?

[James Deuce]

Aaaargh. Dammit, it's Agusta and only a mind reader will know when F4s will stop gracing out roads.

If the saga if the Italian bike industry over the last 2 decades is anything to go by, a Government package will be created to keep the company going while a canny investor/venture capitalist, along the lines of TPG is found to create a workable corporate finance structure.

[( . )( . )]

Proton have sold their controlling stake in MV for ... ummm ... one euro

heres the rest of the story from wikipedia:

"Heavily indebted, the manufacturer was bought by Malaysian carmaker Proton in December 2004 for 70 million euro. In December 2005 however, Proton decided to cut its ties with Agusta and sold it to a Genoa-based financing company related to Carige for a token euro.

In 2006 that financing company, GEVI SpA, with 65% of the share capital, had refinanced MV, and by so doing allowed MV to continue, and brought MV ownership back to Italy."

[Guitana]

Cheer up I would'nt worry about the spare parts I hear a rich Chinese Industrialist based in the Xian Jing province is setting up a spare parts plant as we speak specialising in MV Augusta parts and rare Italian spares.
I know this because I sponsor a 6 year old chinese boy through CCF and in his last letter he told me he had just landed a job as floor supervisor in the spare parts division and starts work this week you might be releived to know he no longer needs me to sponsor him as he now earns over 5 US Dollars a month and is about to put a down payment on his first bicycle!

If you don't beleive me check out the thread on South China Worlds greatest motorcycle manufacturer!

Enjoy the freefall while it lasts the next bits gonna hurt!!!

[Guitana]

[QUOTE=Big Dave;466085]Ironic that it costs $30K for one MV - yet you can have ALL of them for 2 bucks?
In hindsight you can also see that a marriage of Malaysian and Italian wouldn't be one made in heaven either.

Yeah but the spaghetti would taste superb!!!!!

Enjoy the freefall while it lasts the next bits gonna hurt!!!

[WRT]

. . . I sponsor a 6 year old chinese boy through CCF and in his last letter he told me he had just landed a job as floor supervisor in the spare parts division . . .

Pardon??  

[pzkpfw]

Aaaargh. Dammit, it's Agusta and only a mind reader will know when F4s will stop gracing out roads.

If the saga if the Italian bike industry ...

That would be "of the Italian...".


Augusta, Augusta, Augusta, Augusta, Augusta.


(Thanks for the chain advice. WMC is selling my mate a new one, like you said he'd need.)