Mahindra Buys BSA Motorcycles

Indian automotive giant Mahindra has been on a roll in the recent past and acquired many well established automotive brands. British bikemaker BSA is the latest acquisition for the Indian company which it brought for Rs 28 crore. The news doesn’t really come as a surprise, as there were rumours earlier this year that Mahindra is eyeing to buy either BSA or Norton. For Mahindra, BSA isn’t the first European two-wheeler entity that it has purchased as last year it had obtained Peugeot Motorcycles.

The BSA brand has been acquired by Classic Legends (CLPL), a subsidiary brand of the company in in which it has a 60 percent stake. The sale is expected to be completed by first week of November and gives Mahindra the right to acquire/obtain licence of brand and utilise the same for selling, marketing, distributing motorcycles on a global scale.

BSA stands for “The Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited” and it started manufacturing of motorcycles in 1910 and its first offering was the BSA 3½ hp. BSA had a great racing history and at its peak held the distinction of being the largest two-wheeler manufacturer in the world. It also owned the legendary British bikemaker Triumph but sales started dwindling by early 1960’s. Lack of effort in improving its technology and getting stuck with old products was the death knell for BSA and the emerging Japanese bikemnakers finally pushed the brand out of market in 1970’s. BSA currently makes specialised motorcycles for markets like Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, USA, Mexico and Canada. It will be interesting to see whether Mahindra resurrects the iconic brand or not, watch this space for more details.