Investors launch bid to takeover Ducati!!

Ducati's Top Investors Plan EU390 Million Acquisition (Update2)

By Marco Bertacche

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Ducati Motor Holding SpA, the winner of last year's MotoGP motorcycle world title, received a takeover offer for as much as 390 million euros ($576 million) from its three controlling shareholders.

Italian private equity firms Investindustrial SpA and BS Investimenti and partner Hospital of Ontario Pension Plan, which together own almost 30 percent of Ducati, will offer 1.70 euros a share for the rest of the Bologna, Italy-based manufacturer, the investors said in a statement today.

Ducati shares rose 28 cents, or a record 20 percent, to 1.68 euros in Milan after being suspended from trading earlier today pending the announcement. The offer is 22 percent more than yesterday's closing price.

The bid is conditional on the investors gaining control of two thirds of Ducati's capital, and half of the acquisition will be financed by Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, the investors said. The funds said they plan to delist Ducati's shares following recent volatility in equity markets.

Investindustrial and its partners agreed in December 2005 to buy their controlling stake in Ducati from Texas Pacific Group, now known as TPG Inc. The investors appointed a new chief executive officer last May. Ducati shares reached a seven-year high on July 23 and until today's announcement had declined 37 percent.

Ducati is targeting annual sales growth of 10 percent by adding more profitable models and boosting revenue from merchandising. The maker of high-performance motorcycles posted net income of 13.3 million euros in 2007, its first full-year profit after three years of losses.

To contact the reporter on this story: Marco Bertacche in Milan at [email protected] .
Last Updated: February 19, 2008 12:01 E

This could be a good thing or bad. I hope the investors are thinking with their harts and not their pockets. I just pray HarleyDavidson has the day off and this goes by unnoticed.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Traverser @ Feb 20 2008, 05:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>This could be a good thing or bad. I hope the investors are thinking with their harts and not their pockets. I just pray HarleyDavidson has the day off and this goes by unnoticed.
I can wish, can't I????!!!!!!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Traverser @ Feb 20 2008, 11:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>This could be a good thing or bad. I hope the investors are thinking with their harts and not their pockets. I just pray HarleyDavidson has the day off and this goes by unnoticed.
ummm like another AMF saga.

For those of you who don't know, other than the stock price fluctuations, this is a non-event.

Much ado about nothing.

In order to stay in business long enough to launch the 1098 and the D16RR, Ducati SpA had to pay off its debt with equity offerings. Despite the fact it wasn't mentioned in the original structured equity/debt deal (I didn't see it anyway), it was widely speculated that the debtors were coaxed into the deal with an unwritten oral covenant to buy the equity back at x% above the trading price.

This has nothing to do with an ownership shake up, this is the chosen private equity firms reclaiming possession of the company by purchasing the equity they recently issued to Ducati's creditors.

Hmmmm........I'm really surprised it took this long. It was forseeable that Ducati would turn a profit around mid 2007. I know an ill-fated buyout at the wrong time would have destroyed the company, but the private equity firms seem to have cost themselves a fair amount of money by delaying.

Oh well. Not my problem.

Can you give me any advice on some tech stocks?

Yes.

Don't buy any of them unless you know lots about explosive growth small caps.

The only real tech growth is in the emerging Asian markets of India & China. Nearly all the infrastructure in that part of the world was built by Western companies and then purchased by the Indian and Chinese governments when the tech bubble burst. There isn't any revenue growth opportunities there for private ISP's or infrastructure providers (yet). If you wanna play the tech stocks play outsourcing information transfer software, privacy protection software, and the foreign service company's they contract with.

The brain drain is over because no one can get into America or Europe. We let them in as students but now they go home now to make their fortunes. Things will go oversees whether we like it or not.

Hugely volatile, politically charged, societally calamitous, and exchange rate sensitive. Great place to make your fortune or lose your shirt. That's the only place to be if you want more than a slightly larger retirement fund.

Personal electronics growth seems foreseeable, but I think it's so obvious that most stocks have already adjusted. (read Apple)

There is a rumor going around that the de-Nazification of Microsoft is nigh. Software companies in silicon valley and in global software designers are supposed to get a shot in the arm as microsoft's death grip on plug-ins, add-ons, and supplementary software loosens. Personally, I think all of that is wrong. I think it may finally be time for browser wars to be rekindled. Web browsers were supposed to become the new operating systems. However, the operating system company won, so browsing software is just a bundled software trinket. That may change for better or worse.

Don't take my word for it though. I have my own company so the opportunity costs of investing are too high for me to play the market. (I guess that shows you how cash bust my business is. Hard to believe for a service company )

Good luck