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Petroleum brand Valvoline struck a deal this week with Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, which sees the American company selling its global products business for $2.65 billion.

The deal sees Aramco taking ownership of Valvoline’s products used globally, while Valvoline would retain its global rights to the brand name itself for use in retail services, except in China and certain countries in the Middle East and Africa.

Indian motorcycle brands getting involved with Western companies for R&D isn’t anything new, in fact the entire Erik Buell Racing story seems to center around that very issue.

So, it shouldn’t shock anyone to hear that the iconic Royal Enfield motorcycle brand has acquired famed British performance house Harris Performance.

“Royal Enfield is working on its new generation of products and platforms; to have the Harris Performance team dedicatedly working with us will clearly enhance our engineering and product design capabilities,” said Siddhartha Lal, CEO Royal Enfield.

The Motorcycle Aftermarket Group (MAG) continues to be a force of acquisition in the motorcycle industry, as the group has announced its purchase of Motorcycle Superstore. Forming from the purchase a Death Staresque retail group with Motorcycle Superstore and J&P Cycles, MAG has added one of the largest online retailers of sport, street, & off-road motorcycle products to its existing interest in the largest online v-twin parts and accessories retailer.

“Since founding Superstore 14 years ago, I’ve seen it grow from a humble start-up to one of the nation’s largest retailers in the powersports industry,” said Motorcycle Superstore Founder Don Becklin. “Joining forces with J&P Cycles and creating the Retail Group represents an exciting new opportunity. Superstore has found a strategic partner that opens the door to more success and growth for all parties involved.”

The big non-racing news today is that Ducati is reportedly up for sale, with a price tag of €1 billion. To be honest, I’m fairly amused by how many emails I found in my inbox on this topic, and by how far this news item is spreading in the motorcycle news sector today. The buzz of course is that Ducati may be purchased by any number of large manufacturing firms, with smart money on a European automaker.

Either asleep at the switch for the past year, or just grossly inept at understanding financial news (guys, there is a big difference between one billion euros and one billion pounds), collectively the motorcycle news industry is reporting on an story that we first published nine months ago like it is a shot out of the dark.

For those that missed our ongoing coverage of the topic, Investindustrial actively spent the better part of 2011 looking to divest its majority position in Ducati Motor Holdings, and was in serious talks with Mercedes-Benz over the acquisition. Our Bothan Spies told us back in April that Investindustrial was very eager to sell Ducati to Mercedes-Benz, while the zie Germans were being very, well German about the whole thing.

With nothing coming to fruition on the Mercedes deal, Ducati again made waves in August when it was reported that the company was interested in making a private stock offering in 2012. Today’s news of course is the logical extension of that announcement, as it is both 2012 and Investindustrial is rumored to be in talks with several possible private buyers for Ducati. While none of this news should surprise anyone, what is of note is the price tag being attached to Ducati is €1 billion.

Rumors are indicating that KTM has invited Indian manufacturer Bajaj to increase its stake in the Austrian company from the current 30% to up to 90%. While neither party has confirmed the news, it is reported that Bajaj has accepted KTM’s offer, and will immediately purchase an additional 21% of the company’s stock, making it a 51% majority shareholder. Bajaj will then increase its ownership to 90% at a later undecided time.