Ducati Is Not For Sale, Says Volkswagen

If, like us, you’ve been waiting with crossed fingers to see which automotive giant or investment firm would end up owning Ducati next, you can relax and heave a sigh of relief.

The VW Group -- which owns Audi, which owns Ducati -- isn’t selling Ducati.

A little background: The Dieselgate emissions scandal hit the VW Group pretty hard last year, and the company was forced to make some very expensive reparations to various government and regulatory bodies across the globe. Such was the extent of the damage control that VW had to take a long hard look at its sprawling assets and brands, and contemplate offloading some of them to stem the tide. On top of that, VW announced in June 2016 a multibillion-euro shift to electric cars and new mobility services as part of its so-called Strategy 2025.

Since June this year, Ducati and VW’s transmission making arm Renk were being considered as front-running brands to put up for sale to pay the price of Dieselgate. Candidates in the running to acquire the revered Italian brand include Italy’s Benetton family, Harley-Davidson, Baja, and India’s very own Eicher Motors and Hero MotoCorp.

Now, a top official at Volkswagen has stepped up to lay the rumours to rest once and for all. The proposed sale of the two brands currently has no majority backing on the VW’s supervisory board, with opponents to asset sales feeling invigorated by the group's strong results recently. VW's labour leaders, occupying half the seats on the 20-member supervisory board which decides on asset sales, are resisting a sale without compelling financial reasons.

"The employee 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 need money and our subsidiaries are not up for grabs by bargain hunters."

Even without VW’s recent upturn in fortunes, it is understandable why anyone wouldn’t want to sell Ducati at this point. The Italian bikemaker has been doing pretty well recently, especially in Asia, where it has been releasing a slew of well-received and relatively inexpensive new models tailored to the region.