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The famous Italian Motorcyle manfacturer MV Agusta Motor S.p.A. has not been a success story in recent years. Market shares even fell from 1.02 percent to 0.24 percent in Italy after 2023. Annual sales figures remained in the four-digit range. As a result, even involvement in the Superbike World Championship became too costly. During the current financial year, sales are set to increase to 5000 units. The medium-term sales target stay at 10,000 units per year, with a maximum production capacity of 15,000 motorcycles per year.
The Counts Agusta had discontinued motorcycle production in the late 1970s and concentrated on the more lucrative helicopter business. The final end came in 1980, and it was not until 1992 that the Castiglioni Group (Cagiva) managed a new start under the glorious name MV Agusta. Since March 2024, Pierer Mobility AG (KTM, GASGAS and Husqvarna motorcycles) has been the main shareholder with a 50.1 percent stake
In July 2008, the American motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson took over the MV Agusta Group (MVAG) in full for around 70 million euros. Head of Design Massimo Tamburini, who was also responsible for the F4, left CRC (Centro Ricerche Cagiva) and thus MV Agusta at the end of 2008. In the summer of 2010, Claudio Castiglioni bought the company back from Harley-Davidson for the symbolic price of one US dollar because the US company itself had run into serious financial difficulties.
After the death of Claudio Castiglioni, his son Giovanni took over the management of MV Agusta. He seemed overwhelmed by this task, so in October 2014 a partnership was agreed with Mercedes AMG GmbH, which took over 25 percent of the shares in MV Agusta Motor S.p.A.
In July 2017, Mercedes AMG sold the shares back to MV and they were taken over by the Russian investor ComStar Invest, i.e. the oligarch and oil billionaire Rashid Sardarov, whose son Timur was appointed Managing Director.
With Husqvarna, GASGAS and other company takeovers, Stefan Pierer has always striven for 100 percent ownership. Will this also happen at MV?
"If the stars are aligned favorably and co-owner Sardarov is willing, it can happen", says Hubert Trunkenpolz, member of the board of directors at Pierer Mobility. "We have a good understanding with the co-owner on this topic. I assume that we will talk about the next tranche of shares in two years' time, as a few agreements are due to expire. But that makes no difference to us because we have taken over the entire industrial management, we are in the majority. With the Sardarov family, we have a pleasant second shareholder who are happy that we are now running the company. With our Indian partner Bajaj, the Pierer Mobility AG has proved for years that we can handle and live well with a second large partner. But at some point, shareholder Sardarov will come and suggest that we offer the next tranche. There are already letters of intent as to how this can be done. But we are under no time pressure. It was important for us to become the majority shareholder and gain control of the MV Agusta company, because otherwise you can't restructure it. This step has been taken, it's working. In this respect, the current situation is totally okay for us."
