Investment Banking Firm to Help in MV Agusta Sale

2010 MV Agusta F4

American motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson announced that it has selected BNP Paribas, a Milan-based investment banking firm, to help in the sale of MV Agusta. The manufacturer is currently analyzing potential buyers for the brand that has created some of the most sought-after motorcycles in the world.

"MV Agusta is a highly desirable company for the right buyer," said Harley-Davidson Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer John Olin in a release. "MV Agusta has a proud heritage and strong brand, high-quality exciting and beautiful products, and passionate enthusiasm on the part of its customers, employees and dealers, and we are confident in our expectation that we will identify an appropriate buyer."

At the end of October 2009, Harley-Davidson was revealing its third quarter financial results, which showed that sales dropped 21.3 percent year-on-year and the net income is down 84.1 percent. Therefore, the renown American motorcycle manufacturer decided to give up on Buell, sell MV Agusta and switch the focus on their own brand.

However, Harley-Davidson’s intention to sell MV Agusta did not stop the Italian company to continue to move forward on the road to revitalization. Under Harley-Davidson's ownership, MV Agusta has restored production operations and continues to invest substantially in product development.

As we said in previous reports, MV Agusta has recently unveiled the new Brutale 990R and 1090RR, as well as the completely redesigned and reengineered F4 models, which generated a highly enthusiastic response among customers and key trade media at the 2009 EICMA Show in Milan last week.