Ducati sale rumours continue

Rumours of an imminent sale of its Ducati shareholding are continuing to dog Texas Pacific Group (TPG).

Market watcher Bloomberg.com is carrying a story from Italian broadsheet Borsa & Finanza that TPG, Ducati’s parent company is: ” looking to sell its 33.5 per cent stake in Ducati…and has already given an investment bank an exploratory mandate. ”

TPG is a venture capital company investing in ailing companies, turning them around to profitability and selling them after they’ve extracted maximum growth from it. TPG bought a controlling stake in Duacti from Cagiva in 1996.

While Texas Pacific Group have consistently refused to comment on the story, dismissing it as rumour, Ducati’s Chris Spyra, told MCN: ” It’s all a rumour at the moment, we don’t know anything about it. It isn’t a cover-up, it’s just genuinely nothing we know about.

” It’s a credible rumour because the patter for TPG is to buy a company, renovate and restructure it, then sell out again around four to seven years later. The reason TPG won’t comment on this is quite simple, they don’t comment on anything.

” They don’t like speaking to any press about corporate movements either true or fictional. ”

We’ll have a full analysis of the situation in the August 28 issue of MCN.