According to the agency Reuters, relying on two unnamed sources, Volkswagen is considering a possible sale of Ducati to finance a strategic review following the scandal of polluting emissions from its diesels.
Volkswagen has therefore commissioned the investment bank Evercore to study various possible scenarios, including that of a sale of the Ducati brand, which its Audi division acquired for around 860 million euros in July 2012.
Although VW has begun contacting potential buyers to see their interest, no decision has been made on whether the brand will be sold.
VW left it to Audi to make possible comments, but the German firm, as well as the Evercore bank, refused to do so.
Ducati is believed to have made annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of around €100 million and could command a valuation of up to €1,5 billion, or 15 times its earnings of base, a multiple similar to that of Ferrari.
Could a possible sale have an influence on Ducati's MotoGP program?
It seems impossible to respond other than by making a few remarks…
The budget of the MotoGP program is out of all proportion to the sales of hyper sports cars from the Italian brand. Financed largely by a famous cigarette brand, it has no other justification than to promote the image of the Borgo Panigale firm.
However, this image, for the moment, is at the very least damaged by average services and a quest for the Grail which does not seem ready to succeed... enough to tire out potential buyers, unless they, in terms of image, started from scratch, like, for example, rich builders from emerging countries.
Note, however, that this possibility is not new and had already been considered more than a year ago (see here) ...
