After reporting 22% growth in Q1 2014, Giovanni Castiglioni had some closing words about the rumors that Fiat could acquire MV Agusta — a popular rumor that has been swirling around in the press the last two months.
Denying outright that MV Agusta had, or was in, talks with the Fiat-Chrysler group about an acquisition (some reports linked even MV Agusta to being bought by Fiat-owned Ferrari), Castiglioni said the Italian company solely was focused on building growth, and building motorcycles.
Polaris Industries has announced that it has bought back 3.96 million shares of the company’s stock from Fuji Heavy Industries, for the tidy sum of $497.5 million — roughly 6% of Polaris’ total market capitalization.
Paying for the stock purchase with roughly $247 million in cash, and $250 in credit, the move is a response to Polaris’ continued push to develop its own engines in-house.
For some background, Fuji Heavy Industries was the sole-engine supplier to Polaris from 1968 until 1995, at which time Polaris began developing its own power plants.
Despite that shift nearly 20 years ago, Fugi has had an integral part of Polaris’ business up until this point, and in 2013 one in four engines in the Polaris model lineup was built by Fuji Heavy Industries.
For 2014 onward though, the use of Fuji engines is expected to drop as Polaris produces more of its own units.
Lawyers have begun an investigation into the recent rumors that private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) was targeting Harley-Davidson for a stock takeover.
Suspecting that Harley-Davidson executives breached their fiduciary responsibility to Harley-Davidson, Inc., investigators were tipped-off to potential breaches at the Milwaukee company after its stock rose by $2 (+5%) immediately after the rumors were first published in financial reports.
Yamaha Motors is set to raise $812 million in capital in order to pursue development and production of fuel-efficient engines, which includes hybrid and electric models. The focus of this new range of Yamahas seems to be destined for emerging markets, but may include technologies that could trickle into more established markets like the United States. Yamaha plans on raising this money by making 63.25 million more corporate shares publicly available for investment.