It’s been long reported that Audi is interested in acquiring Ducati, and today, the word on the street is the German automaker has finalized a deal to buy the Italian motorcycle maker from owner Investindustrial SpA as early as the end of next week for approximately €860 million or US$1.13 billion.
The new comes from BusinessWeek as well as Reuters, both of which cited people familiar with the matter, though neither Audi nor Ducati have confirmed the reports.
If you exclude Ducatti’s debt that is about €200 million (US$263 million), the deal values the Italian motorcycle maker at around seven times what it earned last year before interest, taxes and depreciation.
If Audi goes ahead with the purchase, Ducati will become the 11th brand in the VW Group’s portfolio that includes several carmakers such as Seat, Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti as well as truck manufactures Scania AB and MAN SE.
Even though Ducati’s addition could provide the VW Group with a potential rival to BMW’s established motorcycle division, most analysts believe it won’t offer much to the company.
“The Ducati purchase is driven by VW’s passion for nameplates rather than industrial or financial logic,” Arndt Ellinghorst, analyst at London’s Credit Suisse, told Reuters.
“It’s an unnecessary sideshow to VW’s main challenges of integrating sports-car maker Porsche and merging truck operations at MAN and Scania,” he added.
Ducati makes about 40,000 motorcycles a year.
PHOTO GALLERY
