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because I will no longer own 100-percent of MV Agusta and control the operation of this factory. Can you confirm the basis of your agreement with Piaggio? Has their initial acquisition of 20-percent of MV Agusta already taken place . and was it for cash, or shares? I've seen the figure of a Lit.30 billion (about $15 million) boost to MV Agusta's capital mentioned in the Italian financial press as the price paid so far - is that right? I can confirm that the first stage of the merger with Piaggio has already taken place, on the basis of what I prefer to call funds for investment, rather than a purchase price, which have largely been plowed back into the business. The figure you mention is approximately correct. Is it the coming of these funds which has permitted MV Agusta production to restart? It's not a question of restarting MV Agusta production, but of increasing the existing volume. It's true that we had a major slowdown, but it never stopped completely. So what will happen now? Will Piaggio gradually build up its share in the company by buying another 20 percent in a few months, and so on until they own the whole company? No, no - it's not a question of one company buying the other, but of two separate entities merging together, to become one. And this will happen in the short term, within the next couple of months. But where would that leave you personally as a minority shareholder in the whole group, with the 20 percent of the total stock that you are rumored to have negotiated as your share of the combined result? Maybe a little more than that. Does the merger include all three marques currently forming the MV Agusta family - MV, Husqvarna and Cagiva. In all sincerity, we have not yet agreed what will happen with Cagiva, what part it will play in this merger. There is a potential conflict in terms of target market with Gilera, which is a glorious marque with a century of history behind it, and the prestige which that brings with it. Probably only one of the two brands will remain, in which case Cagiva could even be excluded from the agreement, and remain with me as our family marque, but dormant. In that case, the current Cagiva range would be rebranded as Gileras, perhaps with its own family of engines further down the line. How about CRC - the Cagiva Research Center which you have now established as a separate company in partnership with designers Tamburini and Galluzzi. Will that form part of the merger? No, CRC is a separate story, and will remain outside the terms of this merger, even if it will work 100-percent exclusively for the new group, so will be inextricably linked to it. But it won't be part of the joint company. How do you see the model lineup of the merged group in, say, a couple of years? Scooters will obviously be sold under the Piaggio and Vespa labels - but what else will the company be marketing, and with what engines? Surely there's a potential conflict between Gilera and MV Agusta, formerly the two most legendary rivals on the racetrack in the golden age of Grand Prix racing, and each with its own strong prestigious identity. Well, I can assure you that we don't intend to conduct any badge engineering - MV and Gilera will remain completely distinct products, to the point that in some countries they will have separate dealer networks, perhaps only sharing in common the pos- sibility to sell Piaggio and Vespa scooters alongside each. The marques will maintain their own individual identity - though I would expect that in export markets we will end up with one importer handling all the products of the entire group. Would such importers be wholly owned by the parent company, as is now predominantly the case with Ducati throughout the world? Probably. Piaggio has a huge R&D capability for developing new engines . in spite of which, like Cagiva, it buys in engines from Suzuki, for its projected new Gilera 600 Supersport. Do you envisage them developing engines for Cagiva? I can only say that when Piaggio designs an engine, they do it very well - no half measures. For this reason, they decided to focus on certain types of engines, and to seek outside suppliers in the meantime for anything they didn't make themselves, until such time as they can get round to producing their own power unit, and are satisfied with its performance and quality. But, for sure, Piaggio will make a range of V-twin four-strokes in the future, the first of which you were able to see for yourself at the Milan Show in September. That's not to say that the Raptor will definitely end up adopting a Piaggio motor - it's presently fitted with a very good Suzuki engine. which we intend to maintain for the foreseeable future. But things may change in the longer term. How about new MV Agusta models? You've been late getting into production with the Brutale, but it seems the cash injection from Piaggio is helping to redress that. It's true, we suffered delays in technical development of our new MV products for various reasons· but in the future, we will address this problem by only releasing new models when they are close to cue I e n e _ S • DECEMBER 12,2001 17