NORTON MOTORCYCLES ENTERS ADMINISTRATION
P106
Feature
adding Norton to his collection of historic
brands. The current outright owner of
Volvo, Lotus Cars, the London Taxicab
Company and, on two wheels, Benelli
QJ alongside his Geely car empire and
9.8 percent holding in Daimler-Benz—its
largest individual shareholder—is highly
likely to be a player in acquiring Norton. Mr. Li is a
visionary investor who's unafraid to roll the dice.
The same applies to Indian industrialist Sid-
dhartha Lal, owner of Royal Enfield, via his Eicher
Corp. parent company. But Lal is unlikely to be
interested in Norton, because of growing RE
capacity problems which have seen it terminate
production of its 500 Classic single seemingly to
concentrate on meeting the steep demand both in
India and abroad for its 650cc Continen-
tal GT and Interceptor twins.
Instead, expect greater interest in
acquiring Norton to emanate from Rajiv
Bajaj, Lal's counterpart at Bajaj Auto,
KTM's Indian partner, which has recently
announced a non-equity partnership
with John Bloor's Triumph Motorcycles. For his-
tory buffs, the thought of Triumph and Norton co-
habiting once again in the same family of brands is
an enticing prospect—and the same goes for BSA
and Norton.
India's giant Mahindra Corp. is about to re-
launch the historic British brand BSA later this
year after acquiring the trademark over three years
ago in October 2016, and adding Norton to its
The 1973
Commando 850
(right) and 2011
Commando 961. Will
these great bikes
roar again, or is that
all she wrote for
Norton?
