Audi AG, 100 per cent owned division of Volkswagen Group, has agreed upon taking control over Ducati, the Italian motorcycle maker. While incorporating this brand, the German luxury auto maker will add a 12th name in its portfolio that includes trucks, passenger cars and ultra luxury vehicles. Volkswagen is currently known as the largest car manufacturer of Europe, whose 20-member supervisory board has stated approval over the purchase proposal of Ducati on 18th April 2012. Although, the company officials refused to share any details regarding the agreement, auto analysts have speculated that Audi purchased Ducati for a consideration of 860 million euros ($1.13 billion).
Ducati is a well known motorcycle maker, which holds 13 rider's Superbike World Championships from 1988. Since the company is now a part of Audi's product portfolio, it will deliver a stiff competition to its close rival Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) in superbikes also. During last year, Audi outperformed the sales of Daimler's Mercedes-Benz and is now betting to go beyond BMW and grab the top position in sales of luxury cars for this decade.
Once the company will get endorsement from the significant authority, it is planning to wind-up the purchasing formalities of Ducati as soon as possible. One of the company officials also mentioned that Audi will also accept the liabilities of Ducati of around 200 million euros. Stefan Bratzel, Director, Centre of Automotive, University of Applied Sciences, Bergisch-Gladbach, said “I can't think of a concrete reason for Audi to warrant a business case for buying Ducati. Ducati doesn't enhance Audi's business model in any way, it's just a trophy in the wall cabinet.”
In the current scenario, the company manufactures around 40,000 two-wheelers in a year, which includes its array of cruiser, supermoto, adventure, naked and superbikes that also includes muscular Diavel and dual sport Hypermotard. On comparing, Honda, the industry leader has registered sales of more than 16 million bikes during the last year.
Ferdinand Piech, under whose able guidance the company added six new brands, foresees to succeed in re-election for the post of chairman at Volkswagen Annual General Meeting (AGM), which is scheduled on 19th April in Hamburg. Volkswagen has prolonged its portfolio, which includes several vehicles right from fuel efficient cars to 40 tonne trucks. However, the company is currently eyeing to take over the remaining 50.1 per cent stake in the Sports car manufacturer Porsche. In addition to this, the company officials also announced on 13th April 2012 that Volkswagen has raised its stake in MAN, a truck manufacturer.
