Motorcycle Sport & Leisure

Exclusive interview: Claudio Castiglioni

Italy’s fertile rumour mill is running in overdrive once again, over the latest chapter in the roller-coaster ride in the fortunes of the iconic MV Agusta marque. In an exclusive interview with MSL, MV's president Claudio Castiglioni reveals the truth behind the rumours.

It’s been claimed in leading Italian newspapers, such as the respected Corriere della Sera, that the president of cash-strapped motorcycle manufacturer MV Agusta, Claudio Castiglioni, is in talks with Indian conglomerate Tata – which recently acquired Jaguar and Land Rover – and is in investment talks with Italian carrozzeria Pininfarina for a purchase of the controlling 57.75 per cent interest in MV currently owned by local investment bank Gevi SpA.

Also reportedly interested is American giant Harley-Davidson, which is known to have made an offer a year ago to purchase Ducati. That was rebuffed by the Italian firm’s current key investors – but in spite of the sharp downturn in Harley’s core American market in the wake of the sub-prime debt scenario currently afflicting the US economy, the rumour mill insists that H-D could yet be interested in acquiring MV. It’d certainly be a much smaller mouthful to digest than Ducati, while arguably an even more prestigious brand to add to the H-D trophy cabinet. Well that’s the rumour-mongers’ scenario, anyway!

So how did all this come about? Well, in December 2005, as part of a boardroom civil war, Malaysian car manufacturer Proton disposed of the controlling interest in MV Agusta which it had acquired for €70-million from the Castiglioni family in November 2004. As victors in the power struggle, Proton’s new management abandoned its predecessor’s short-lived plan to expand into the motorcycle business, by selling its stake in MV for a nominal one Euro to Gevi, the private equity division of one of Italy’s oldest and most established banks, Banca Carige, with the buyer assuming responsibility for the firm’s outstanding debt that was reputed to then total in excess of €100-million. Proton had agreed a restructuring of this with MV’s three principal debtor banks, which foresaw gradual repayment of debt plus interest over an eight-year period, a commitment that Gevi assumed as part of the deal. But according to Italy’s leading financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, MV Agusta’s 2007 balance sheet showed a €34.47-million net loss on a turnover of €141.3-million – a situation which the sale of its Husqvarna dirtbike subsidiary to BMW last July for a reported €92-million, was supposed to have helped redress. However, Gevi is understood to have pocketed the entire proceeds of this sale, a move which it may be presumed greatly dismayed MV Agusta president Claudio Castiglioni, whose family continues to own 37.25 per cent of the company’s equity, alongside legendary designer Massimo Tamburini’s two per cent, and the three per cent balance still held by Swedish conglomerate Electrolux, former owners of Husqvarna motorcycles. Castiglioni is understood to have believed that, in return for negotiating the sale of Husqvarna with BMW, a substantial proportion of the net proceeds would be reinvested in MV, to fund the development of several new models as part of the company’s 2008-2013 business plan.

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