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BSA Brand Purchased by Mahindra for $4.1 Million

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News from across the pond indicates that the historic BSA motorcycle brand has been acquired by Indian motorcycle manufacturer Mahindra.

According to the newswires, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited (through a subsidiary named Classic Legends Private Limited) acquired 100% of BSA Company Limited for the tidy price of £3.4 million, or $4.1 million (at the time of this writing).

That amount is quite the sum, considering that the BSA brand brought in a paltry $34,000 in licensing in the last 12 months.

Surely though, Mahindra’s purchase price reflects a sum that’s more in line with what the Indian company expects to make from the British brand, especially in conjunction with its current business operations.

We would expect Mahindra to revive the BSA brand for motorcycles destined for markets outside of India and Southeast Asia, where the Indian name carries less of a cache.

Indian motorcycle brands have shown great growth and development in the past 10 years, but they have the difficult task of overcoming the stigma that Western buyers have regarding their products.

This challenge has seen the Indian marques take several different paths into the North American and European markets. On the one hand, brands like Royal Enfield have tried to appeal on both price and quirkiness, to younger riders.

Meanwhile, we have seen brands like Bajaj, Hero, and TVS form partnerships with established players already in markets outside of India, with varying degrees of success.

No liking the two choices laid before it, Mahindra has seemingly taken the third option – entering with a new motorcycle brand – though admittedly, it is a borrowed on. It will be interesting to see how this move plays out.

Source: MotoFire

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