KTM Announces Potential Plan To Buy Majority Stake In MV Agusta

[advrider]

After initially buying into MV Agusta in 2022, KTM now says it is ready to buy a majority stake in the company if the coming months play out as hoped.

The news comes from a pre-EICMA press release, as KTM details its future plans to investors. Here’s the official line from the PR:

In November 2022, KTM AG, a subsidiary of PIERER Mobility AG, by ways of a capital increase acquired a 25.1% stake in MV Agusta Motor S.p.A., based in Varese (Italy). As part of this cooperation, KTM AG took over the supply chain and purchasing for MV Agusta in October 2023. In addition, MV Agusta’s product range is distributed through PIERER Mobility’s worldwide sales network.

The call option granted to KTM AG on the basis of the annual financial statements as of December 31, 2025 to acquire a majority stake in MV Agusta will be exercised in spring 2026.

So, there’s plenty of time to to see how this works out.

However, it’s interesting to see this announcement in light of KTM announcing its intention to take control of MV Agusta (see this write-up from May), which was quickly followed by MV Agusta’s CEO saying no, that wasn’t going to happen. It seems they’ve come to some sort of agreement. Knowing how these arrangements have worked out in the past—a few years back, GasGas employees hung effigies of potential buyers from the factory windows—the question is: Will MV Agusta’s staff be working hard to make the deal happen, or working to sabotage the process?

Already, KTM handles MV Agusta’s purchasing, and its distribution, sales and servicing in many markets. About the only parts the Italians are in charge of would be R&D and production, and you can bet that KTM is also watching that closely now.

The closeness between the two brands should be particularly obvious at the EICMA show next month, as MV Agusta is reportedly about to reveal the final form of its Enduro Veloce adventure bike.

The Chinese connection

And now for the other interesting part of that press release. For years now, we’ve known that Chinese manufacturer CFMoto and KTM were cooperating. Currently, CFMoto builds several bikes for KTM, including the 790 Duke and 790 Adventure. Some fans were wondering: Why was KTM doing business with the Chinese manufacturer?

The answer is simple: CFMoto is buying up shares of KTM. Or rather, shares in Pierer AG, KTM’s parent company. According to that same press release:

KTM AG has intensified its cooperation with CFMOTO in the areas of product strategy, development and industrialization. Beside taking over the distribution of CFMOTO motorcycles by KTM in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain and Great Britain, the production capacity of the joint venture partner will be expanded from currently 50,000 to 100,000 units. As a sign of the deepening of the cooperation, CFMOTO increased its stake in the stock listed PIERER Mobility AG to 2,0% in July 2023.

So, you can expect a whole lot more made-in-China KTMs in the years to come.

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