No official announcement has been made yet, but in Italy they know for sure: after 15 turbulent years with several changes of ownership and partial factory closures, the future of MV Agusta finally seems secured. Rumor has it that MV Agusta has been acquired by the Pierer Mobility AG.
No motorcycle brand with such an unimaginably turbulent history since its resurrection than MV Agusta, which has been sold and bought back by the Castiglioni family so many times that we’ve lost count. Harley-Davidson once had big plans for it, but had to sell the brand again due to the credit crisis.
In 2014, Mercedes AMG took a 25% minority stake in MV Holding, but sold the shares back to the Italians in December 2017. With the repurchase of this minority stake, Giovanni Castiglioni, son and heir of founder Claudio Castiglioni, and the Russian Timur Sardarov became the partners in MV Agusta Motor Spa
In July 2017, Sardarov, son of industrialist Roman Sardarov (who with his oil and gas extraction company Comstar Energy Group is one of the 500 richest people in Russia), already had an interest through his company Black Ocean Group and his investment fund “Comsar Invest”. of 49% in MV taken.
Timur Sardarov took over the position of CEO and chairman of the board, while Giovanni Castiglioni was created the position of president. In plain language, this meant: Castiglioni was responsible for the design, Sardarov supervised the operational affairs and watched over the finances.
A new course was set under Sardarov, which should result in quite a few new models in the near future, but since the Russian war in Ukraine, the wealthy Sardarov family has also been placed on the sanctions list. Timur Sardarov has spoken out against the war from the start, but the sanctions have put MV Agusta in financial trouble again.
After taking over Husqvarna, Husaberg and GasGas, Stefan Pierer’s takeover hunger was by no means satisfied. Pierer aimed his arrows at Ducati, in the hope that Audi would have to part with it because of the costs of dieselgate, but was rejected. Ducati turned out not to be for sale. Pierer had already lost interest in Triumph before that, after the British left the EU.
There was only one European brand left for the Pierer Mobility AG: MV Agusta. Pierer’s interest in MV Agusta became apparent a month ago, when it was announced on September 21 that KTM AG had taken over MV Agusta’s sales and marketing for the North American and Mexican markets.
That accelerated the rumor of an imminent takeover of MV Agusta by KTM, a rumor that was no longer denied by the Pierer Mobility AG. A press release will be released next Thursday, well in time for the EICMA in Milan.
– Thanks for information from Motorfreaks.