Audi buys Ducati; CEO Stadler named to board
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The purchase of Ducati extends VW Group's product range from high-powered motorcycles to 50-ton trucks. |
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FRANKFURT (Bloomberg) -- Audi completed the 860 million-euro ($1.06 billion) purchase of Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A. and named its CEO, Rupert Stadler, to the motorcycle maker's board.
Audi Chief Financial Officer Axel Strotbek and executive Horst Glaser also will join the Italian manufacturer's board after the transaction was completed today, Bologna-based Ducati said in an e-mailed statement.
Ducati, the maker of the Monster, Diavel and Superbike models, was acquired by Audi's Lamborghini sports car unit from Milan-based private-equity firm Investindustrial Advisors S.p.A.
Deliveries last year totaled about 42,000 motorcycles, with revenue at 480 million euros.
Ducati employs about 1,100 people.
Current Ducati managers "will stay on board and remain responsible for business operations," Juergen De Graeve, a spokesman at Ingolstadt, Germany-based Audi, said earlier today.
Ducati CEO Gabriele Del Torchio will join Lamborghini's board, the motorcycle maker said.
Audi is owned by Wolfsburg-based Volkswagen AG, Europe's biggest carmaker. VW Group's other assets in Italy include design and technology unit Italdesign, founded by Giorgetto Giugiaro, who sketched the first Volkswagen Golf model.
VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech has long coveted the brand. He publicly expressed interest in buying Ducati in April 2008 before eventually losing out to Investindustrial. The purchase will make Ducati the 11th brand in VW's portfolio, alongside supercar marques Lamborghini, Bentley and Bugatti, mass-market brands such as Seat and Skoda and heavy-duty truck manufacturers Scania and MAN.
Earlier this month, the group agreed to buy the remaining 50.1 percent of Porsche SE's automotive business that it doesn't already own for 4.46 billion euros ($5.6 billion), which will add a 12th brand to VW's lineup.
Automotive News Europe contributed to this report
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