Three owners now have 85% of Ducati

[ducatiz]

Key Ducati investors seen holding 85 pct stake
Fri Jun 6, 2008 3:31pm EDT

MILAN, June 6 (Reuters) - Ducati's (DMH.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) three main shareholders will end up owning nearly 85 percent of the Italian motorcycle maker after other shareholders took up their offer to buy them out, according to a statement on Friday.

The three shareholders -- Investindustrial, BS Investimenti and the Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan -- offered in February to buy the 70 percent of Ducati they did not own at 1.70 euros per share.

By Friday, their offer worth more than 390 million euros had been accepted by holders of a combined 55.2 percent of Ducati, the statement said, increasing their entire holding to 84.7 percent.

Ducati's stock ended virtually flat at 1.66 euros in Milan.

Though the company makes premium bikes whose riders include Australian world champion Casey Stoner, a crisis nearly sent it off the track in 2005. It has since been restructuring its operations aimed at meeting ambitious targets for 2010.

In 2007, Ducati made a net profit of 13.3 million euros on revenue of 397.7 million.

Before the offer was made, Investindustrial, a private equity firm controlled by Italy's Bonomi family, owned 15.6 percent of Ducati, while Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan had 7.4 percent and BS Investimenti had about 7 percent. (Reporting by Gilles Castonguay; Editing by Braden Reddall)

[LA]

This sounds like it could be some very bad news. These "investors" don't sound like "motorcycle" people to me.

Could be some dark days ahead. I hope I'm wrong.

LA

[DesmoDiva]

First the DML and now Ducati Motorholding Spa.

Sounds like we are going to need something larger than a foil hat to keep the canucks (Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan) from owning a large hunk of our family.   

You think a tinfoil dome over the factory will work??

[roy-nexus-6]

This sounds like it could be some very bad news. These "investors" don't sound like "motorcycle" people to me.

Could be some dark days ahead. I hope I'm wrong.

LA

Good news is they aren't new investors. They all had money in the company before, so they are obviously comfortable with what Ducati does. And what Ducati will do in the future - I'm sure they're privy to all sorts of interesting info.

[clubhousemotorsports]

Just because they are not motorcycle companies does not mean bad news. TPG (texas pacific group) didn't care if ducati was a donut shop, they are just looking to make a profit.

This was the company that brought ducati back from the edge of ruin that the "motorcycle people" (cagiva) had run them to. My take is we can have it one of two ways.

1. motorcycle company owned and run by enthusiasts, we will see great bikes like the 916 and 90's 900ss and our own early style monsters.
     we will have to accept that as most italian motorcycle companies the business will run itself into bankruptcy (like ducati,mv,guzzi,aprilia,bimota and any other italian motorcycle you care to mention). And parts will be unobtainable, quality will be decent but spotty.
     Dealers will have a hard time making a profit as they will get  little support from the company.
     We will love these bikes and make lots of excuses to our friends/spouses why we need bikes that have so many problems.

OR

2.  Big brother owns the company and runs it like a business, this means profits are not an option.
    costs must be kept under control, so cheaper parts must be sourced.
    Thats not all bad though because warranty is an issue and lowering warranty rates are a priority (lets hope it is not a just say NO policy)
    New models must be churned out at a faster rate to keep the line up fresh, no more 10 year old designs.
    building up the image is priority #1 because that is ducatis one sales point.
   There are a lot of great bikes out there, dare I say some better ones to (heresy I know) but they are not what we want or we would have them . So as long as they make us all want them they can create most anything and we will buy it. once they build up the name enough. Time to sell.

For me I miss #!

[ducatiz]

I think it's a good thing for the most part, but people have to have a balance between passion and profit.

Federico Minoli was perfect CEO for Ducati for a lot of reasons, read here:
http://www.portfolio.com/culture-lifestyle/goods/cars/2007/12/17/Ducati-Comeback

Minoli was not a rider, he just loved the "small company" as a triumphant force.

[Dareduc]

This sounds like it could be some very bad news. These "investors" don't sound like "motorcycle" people to me.

Could be some dark days ahead. I hope I'm wrong.

LA

+1

replace profit with passion... never a good idea.

[Triple J]

Just because they are not motorcycle companies does not mean bad news. TPG (texas pacific group) didn't care if ducati was a donut shop, they are just looking to make a profit.

This was the company that brought ducati back from the edge of ruin that the "motorcycle people" (cagiva) had run them to. My take is we can have it one of two ways.

+1

[Ontario_Monster]

With the Hospitals of Ontario Pension Plan investing they are doing it because they are projecting continued growth, now if only the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan would invest they keep seeing growth rates of 1.5 the stockmarkets over all rate or better.  Hmmm still most of these are hands off owners there is likely to be little change in the management group unless they stop making profits, and that usually only happens when your product is garbage.