Patritalia wants Ducati and MV Agusta, but its 'Italian-only' plan raises questions
The group behind a €2.5bn bid for Ducati has outlined what it would do if the deal goes through, including replacing Triumph in Moto2 and making the entire operation Italian!
Patritalia has reiterated its bid to buy Ducati from the Audi/Volkswagen Group, claiming that its €2.5bn offer remains on the table indefinitely and outlining what it would do if it gets its hands on the Bologna-based manufacturer. And if it’s CEO and founder is to be believed, it isn't stopping at Ducati.
The Italian group says MV Agusta is also among its targets, with the stated aim of returning both brands, and other unnamed Italian companies, to Italian ownership. Patritalia says this is central to its founding philosophy and that Ducati and MV Agusta are of interest specifically because they are currently foreign-owned. Quite how far that philosophy would extend is where things get interesting.
In a lengthy social media statement aimed at correcting what Patritalia describes as "distorted" reporting about its plans, the company says that if it acquires Ducati, its "Italian Patriotism" would be applied at every level of the business. Most notably, it says its companies would be "always and only" made up of Italians, regardless of the skills foreign employees might bring. That appears to mean a Ducati workforce that is exclusively Italian, from the workshop floor sweeper, right up to the president. Quite how that would work in practice is less clear.
Ducati is an international manufacturer with a global network of subsidiaries, importers and dealers, selling motorcycles in markets around the world. Even if Patritalia's statement is interpreted as referring only to Ducati's own employees rather than its independent dealer networks and subsidiaries, applying an absolute Italian-only policy to a genuinely global business would present some fairly obvious practical questions.
There is also an interesting contradiction in Patritalia's stated ambitions for Ducati's racing operation.
The group says that, should it acquire Ducati, it wants to produce its own engines and chassis and "replace Triumph" in Moto2. It argues that Ducati should be capable of producing an engine superior to Triumph's, pointing to the debut of Ducati's Desmo450 MX motocross engine as evidence of its engineering ability. The problem is that replacing Triumph in Moto2 isn't something Ducati, or Patritalia, can simply decide to do.
Triumph became Moto2's exclusive engine supplier after being selected by the championship's governing and commercial stakeholders, with the current agreement running from 2019. Any future change to the Moto2 engine supplier would ultimately be a matter for the championship's organisers and commercial rights holder, rather than something a prospective Ducati owner could impose.
Patritalia acknowledges that issue to some extent, saying it wants a free market in Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP, but adds that if a monopoly remains, it wants Ducati to replace Triumph and become the supplier instead.
That's a fairly ambitious shopping list for a company that, at this stage, hasn't actually bought a single share.
The €2.5bn offer itself also remains just that: an offer. Patritalia says Audi/Volkswagen has not formally rejected it and that the proposal has no expiry date, leaving the ball in the current owner's court.
The group is particularly critical of the way Ducati has changed under Audi/Volkswagen ownership, arguing that the brand has become "too Audi" and lost some of its Italian character and adrenaline. I’m not sure anyone who has ridden a Panigale V4 S on track will agree with that point.
Its proposed solution is essentially to reverse that process. Alongside returning Ducati and potentially MV Agusta to Italian ownership, Patritalia says it would eventually introduce more affordable Ducati road bikes aimed at younger riders, with the intention of getting them into the Ducati world from the beginning of their riding careers.
There is an obvious business question here too, in that Ducati has spent years building itself into a premium global brand, with relatively high prices helping maintain its positioning and profitability. Patritalia's vision of affordable entry-level Ducatis designed to bring younger riders into the fold would therefore represent a significant change of direction.
Whether any of this actually happens depends first on one rather important detail: whether Audi/Volkswagen wants to sell Ducati, and if they want it to go to Patritalia at all.
For now, Patritalia doesn't own Ducati, doesn't own MV Agusta and has no authority to decide who supplies engines to Moto2. Those are the facts of the matter.
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Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
