KTM’s Stefan Pierer Wants To Buy Ducati

KTM Group has grown stronger from the day Stefan Pierer became CEO of the celebrated Austrian motorcycle make—now partly owned by Indian giant Bajaj Group. KTM is expected to sell close to 300,000 units by the end of 2018, a huge success that seems to give additional momentum to the expansion plans that CEO Pierer has been conceiving for the KTM Group to become the world's third largest motorcycle manufacturer.

Pierer is reported to being in the process of teasing the Volkswagen Group with an offer exceeding 1.5 billion euros for the acquisition of Ducati. Here we go again: Ducati up for sale?

Not so fast: Herbert Diess is the new CEO of Volkswagen Group, replacing Matthias Müller, and that makes a whole lot of difference because Diess was the former chief of BMW Motorrad. He loves motorcycles—Ducati motorcycles in particular as he regularly rides a Ducati Panigale and very passionately follows Ducati racing activity in MotoGP. In fact, he and Audi CEO Bram Schot had met with Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali in Valencia at the last round of the 2018 World Motorcycle Championship. Nothing leaked about the meeting, but they surely did not talk about the 2019 racing plans.

Still, Pierer is said to have his sights set on Ducati, hoping the financial pressure of the “dieselgate” affair will force Volkswagen Group to sell its motorcycle gem. Rumors also included Triumph and MV Agusta on Pierer shopping list, but he has confirmed that Ducati will always remain his primary choice.