Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

The State of Aprilia in a few weeks." Ducati has no inte res t in acqu iring the Aprilia marque, but the purchase of such an historic name as Moto Guzzi, with a co ntrasting, low-tech model range compared to its own, wo uld be very attractive, especially in giving U.S. Ducati dealers a very Italian product with a glorious history, targeted at the vital custom market they currently miss out on . Despite assurances to the contrary from Guzzi CEO Roberto Brovazzo, there seems little doubt that Aprilia did indeed make an approach to Ducati management in early April to sell Moto Guzzi to them - with zero debt - and in doing so apparently put a price tag of Euro 90 million [just under $1 10 million) on the company. Ducati is reliably understood to value Guzzi at not more than half that and has kicked in with a starting offer of Euro 30 million [$36.6 million), leaving a substantial gulf between the two positions, wh ich may only be resolved under pressure from Aprilia's debtor banks. Whether Ducati ends up purchasing Moto Guzzi direct from Aprilia (wh ich under certain conditions, depending on the final price, might give Beggio breathing space to allow him to retai n con trol of th e remainder of Aprilia, at leas t in the sho rt te rm ) or does a deal with Colaninno to buy the marque off him afte r Piaggio has acq uired the entire Aprilia Gro up, either way the Ame rican-controlled company is the fro nt ru nner to acquire what would be a serious asset for it. In either case , such a deal w ould no t include Lave rda, Ivana Beggio's other tro phy marque, which he acquired from the Vicenzabased com pany's liq uidators in 2002 but has so far spent little money on reviving, beyond the creation of an SFC I000 prototype powered by an Aprilia RSVIOOOR engine. "We have no interes t in Laverda, which as a sporting brand conflicts at all levels with our existing Ducati range," said Ducati president and CEO, Federico Minoli, before commencing due diligence and being obliged to cease commenting on the takeover bid. "Guzzi is our only interest, and I'lladmit to a sense of unfinished business after we were outbid for it four years ago with a price that was frankly way too high. It would fit very well in with the rest of ou r model range, and I hope we can pu ll it off. But we won' t be paying any crazy prices to do so!" How eve r, ne ithe r Co laninno no r Minoli w ill be underestima ting Bombard ie r Recreational Prod ucts Inc ., the Q uebecbased multinational that not only invented the snowmobile back in 1937, and whose Ski-Doo range is still the market leader, but also has a significant presence in the personal watercraft (Sea-Doc), ATV and scooter markets and owns the Evinrude and johnson outboard motor manufacturers, as well as Rotax, for wh ich Aprilia is only one of many customers in industries ranging from aircraft to go-karts, Bombardier is a major player, for which the attraction of acquiring Aprilia is self-evident - not only from the point of view of liqUidating outstanding de bts, but also of preserving a key customer for its Rotax subsidiary and adding a new market sector to its exist ing range of recreational and utilitary vehicles . Bombardier is not new to the world of motocycles in its own right, having found ed its own Can-Am marque in 1972 with a range of motocross and e ndu ro models powered by dedicated 1251250cc Rotax twostro ke e ngines, w hich w ere extreme ly successful in North American motocross and off-road competition and acq uired a strong customer follow ing in the 19705 be fore the shock decision was taken in the late 19BOs to pull ou t of the motorcycle secto r in the face of increased competitio n fro m the japan ese. But with Aprilia, Bombardi er w ould no t o nly acq uire a complete range of products fro m 50cc scooters up to 10000c Superb ikes , it would also have the opportunity to position its other products in key markets where Aprilia has a strong sales presence, such as Euro pe , Australasia and - since the signing of the agreement at the end of last year with Hero Motors to manufacture a range of Aprilia scooters for worldwide sale - India. It's known that a group of Bombardier executives visited the Mota Guzzi factory on April 23 , presumably not o nly to co nd uct due diligence but also to inspect the modernized engine manufactUring facility in the historic 22 MAY 19, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS plant. It may w e ll be that the question of whether Bombardier can act qu ickly enough in terms of comi ng up with the necessary finance to meet Beggio's crunch dead lines will be crucial here - because Colaninno's co nnections are such that he can pre tty much cut a deal right away. However, a key element may be the issue of whether e ither is prepared to allow lvano Beggio to stay on in some kind of a ro le, managing the compa· ny that he personally was responsible fo r growing to its present stature from the re latively humble basis of his father's bicycle and moped factory, which he took over in 1969. Although Beggio is understood to have stated he's prepared to dip into his own not inconsiderable private ban k balance to help bail out Aprilia, a Colan inno takeover would undoubtedly see no place remaining w ithin the company fo r him - but a Bombardier deal might well be a different case. Whatever ha ppen s, for sure Aprilia's future involvemen t in Grand Prix road racing to the extent that it has been so strongly commined to over the pas t 15 years is certain to be reviewed. Almost definitely, the iIIfated MotoGP operation currently eat ing up precious R&D capital in return fo r zero success on the racetrack will get the chop - but the issue much more likely to give serious conce rn to GP promoto r Doma, as well as to more than half the GP paddock, is to what extent any new owner of Aprilia would be prepared to continue building 125cc and 250cc two-stroke GP racers of such a highly specialist nature, and in such limited quan tities - just 50 bikes for the 2004 season, between the two classes. Though Aprilia's race boss jan Wineveen has always insisted that the Swiss-registered (for tax purposes) GP racing division is a profit center for the Group as a whole, it' s questionable whether new owners not imbued with the same love of the sport as Ivana Beggio would be prepared to continue effectively underwriting the ongoing existence of tw o specialist road racing categories having no thing whatsoever to do with their new acquisition's streetbike pr od uction - even if the ir products fill up more than half the grid in each category. So , w hy not Superbike , the n? While Aprilia unacco untably con tinues to remai n an o uts ider in Wo rld Supe rbike - in spite of the fact that the week after factory ride r Troy Corser w on the Laguna Seca ro und of the 2000 SBK series on his Aprilia, every available RSVIOOOR in the USA vanished from dealers' floors - in the week that the parent com pany was struggling to survive, Aprilia's debut in the AMA Superbike series from june onward was confirmed by its U.S. subsidiary. A tw o-man team featu ring former Ducati Wo rld Superbike factory rider and American Hond a AMA race-winner Mike Hale, and Man Wait, will be running race-developed examples of the new RSVIOOOR Factory entered by California- based ltalica Racing, funded by former Hollywood stunt man , now movie director, jeff jensen. Wait, coinci- 40th Anniversary dentally, was charged with test riding the prototype Moto Guzzi MGS/O I factory -built Formula Xtreme race r in winter testing in California, before be ing snapped up by ltalica. Though directly sup po rted by the Italian factory, w hich accord ing to team manager David Lewis will be invo lved in joint developme nt of the bikes , the team is entirely indepe ndent, so its future e xistence is not subject to the vagaries of any future takeover of Aprilia by a third party. ltalica will be building and deve loping the bikes itself, with Aprilia USA:s help , and has both riders contracted until the end of 2OOS, in what promises to be a serious retu rn to Superbike competition for the RSV Mille, running for the first time anywhere in the world in Superbike fo rm in its new, more compact '04 model year guise. eN As this iswe went to press. Apr ilioUSA iswed the followingpress release... Editor: Aprilia SpA. the Noole. Italy·based monufacturer of award-winning motorcycles and scooters. today announced new credit lines for ]0 million Euros as wellos renewal of existing lines. for a totol global line ofcredIt of 180 million Eurns. The financing agreement was reached with the assistance 0( a consortium offinanciol institutions. includIng Interbonca and Carelti & Associoti. This new round offUndIng a/lows Apr to resume fUll product onand satisfyhighmar· ilia i ket demandos the moin ridingseasongets under way in most ports of the world . Demond has been especially strong in Aprilio's growing U.S. maket - Despite being 0 relot;.,., new· c

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