Ducati Motorcycles | Volkswagen Board Votes Against Ducati Sale

Ducati Motorcycles: VW sale of Ducati, Renk units lacks board support

Ducati Motorcycles: (VOWG_p.DE) planned the sale of bike manufacturer Ducati and transmissions maker Renk has currently no vast majority backing on the carmaker’s supervisory board, with competitions to asset sales feeling invigorated by the group’s powerful results.

Europe’s largest automaker has asked banks to appraise choices for Ducati and Renk including divesting the two branches as it aims to streamline operations to assist finance an overhaul.

Since announcing in June 2016 new mobility solutions as part of its so-called Strategy 2025 and a multi-billion-euro shift to electric cars, Volkswagen has been reviewing its portfolio of brands and assets.

Five bidders are shortlisted to purchase Ducati, including Italy’s Benetton family, with supplies received checking the newest at 1.3 billion-1.5 billion euros ($1.76 billion), a source said on Saturday.

However, the labor leaders, occupying the chairs on the 20-member supervisory board that determines on power sales of VW, withstand a sale of Ducati and Renk without compelling reasons.

“The worker representatives on Volkswagen’s supervisory board will neither approve a sale of Ducati, nor one of Renk or MAN Diesel & Turbo,” a spokesman for VW group’s works council told Reuters late on Saturday.

“Everyone who can read the VW half-year results should know: We don’t require money and our subsidiaries are not up for grabs with bargain hunters.”

Six-month operating profit in VW team jumped 19 percent to 8.9 billion euros, the carmaker said on Thursday, as cost cuts and R&D improvements at the core namesake manufacturer earned VW a pledge by the billions of euros in prices for fines, vehicle refits and reimbursement linked to its diesel gate scandal.

Ducati Motorcycles: One source at VW said that given powerful union resistance, VW is now reviewing the strategy as it does not want to risk working on executing a turnaround program that was hard-fought for the VW brand to market Ducati, seen as crucial by shareholders

Though Ducati is owned by VW’s luxury brand Audi (NSUG.DE), the VW group’s supervisory board has to approve a potential sale. Audi declined to comment.

The billionaire Porsche and Piech families, holding four supervisory board seats and controlling 52 percent of shares in VW, do not encourage selling Ducati or Renk, two sources at VW group stated.

DE), the family’s holding company, declined comment.

With 20 percent of voting rights in VW, Lower Saxony can veto decisions like mill closures.

Holding two board chairs, Lower Saxony teams up for the sake of protecting jobs and projects with the employee representatives of VW. A spokeswoman declined to comment when asked if the state government would back a sale of Ducati or other resources.

“The management board hasn’t even asked the supervisory board of Volkswagen, in which these sales need to be ratified, for its approval,” the works council spokesman said. “Therefore we advise all allegedly interested parties: Save your time to look at any novels. A sale will not happen.”

The five bidders shortlisted to buy Ducati will receive entry to the books of the company following the summertime, the source said.

With most of all the executives of Audi away to get a summer break, a determination on whether direction will stick to the sale will not be taken until September or October, a source said.

VW finance leader Frank Witter, talking on Thursday’s earnings call, declined any comment on “speculation” surrounding VW’s strength sales strategies.