After Investindustrial’s Andrea Bonomi announced to the Financial Times that the private-capital firm intended to sell Ducati for a cool 1 billion euros, the whole financial world began probing for the names of the potential suitors.
The motorcycling world did the same, but with a different spirit: Ducati ranks high on the roster of most-loved motorcycle brands, and enthusiasts around the world are concerned about the “qualifications” of ownership candidates: The buyer needs to be able to keep Ducati on its present course of building high-performance, high-technology and high-style motorcycles.
This type of well-guided, respectful stewardship did not take place when the Texas Pacific Group equity fund took over Ducati in the 1990s, nor even when Investindustrial acquired the majority holding in the brand from TPG in 2008. Despite this, the strength of Ducati’s image has grown enormously thanks to the quality of its models, as well as from its success in World Superbike and MotoGP racing (despite recent setbacks in the latter). Even the hiring of Valentino Rossi, for the little it produced on the track, enhanced Ducati’s image.
In the days since the announcement, the list of potential acquirers included (an improbable from the beginning) BMW to Volkswagen (through is subsidiary Audi) to Mercedes-AMG to India’s Mahindra and Hero, just to name the most visible, powerful transportation brands. Let me limit my guesswork to the two names that appeared most credible from the beginning: Mercedes-AMG and Audi....more