Royal Enfield – After an article published in The Times Of India a few days ago, in the last hours, a news is becoming strong. It would represent a historic turning point for Ducati.
Dieselgate
The Volkswagen Group, the current owner of the Italian brand via Audi, would have made contacts with the Indian group Eicher Motors, which controls Royal Enfield, to explore the possibilities of a supply of Ducati. The initiative of the German colossus would spring from the desire to VW of “lightening” their activities after the scandal known as Dieselgate and its consequences. As the costs for the ‘regularization’ of 11 million vehicles and big fine of 14.7 billion dollars to be paid to the authorities of the United States.
Evencore
The Volkswagen Group would have instructed Evercore to evaluate possible options for Ducati for sale available on the market, from which you would get something like a billion and a half euros. According to reports at the time, Volkswagen had bought Ducati in spring 2012 for about 860 million.
Royal Enfield’s Expansion
In recent years, Royal Enfield was the star of a great growth in India (31% in sales in 2016) and an aggressive expansion strategy abroad- in Asia, Europe, and North America – and Eicher Motors (which already has strong partnerships with Volvo and Polaris) would have shown interested in buying, although at present there would be in a stage of preliminary negotiations everything. Meanwhile, the assumptions related to other potential buyers such as Suzuki, Honda, Polaris and Harley-Davidson Would be more ‘cold’.
Siddharta Lal
“I can’t speak with you about similar topics. I have a more general view on these things. We are always open to thoughts and ideas but, as you know, we are a very focused and selective. And so, basically, no absolutely say “no” to anything. Because it can never say. We remain alerted to opportunities, but without being distracted by our objectives.” said Eicher Motors CEO Siddhartha Lal.
