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KTM to Become Privately Owned, Buys Public Shares

From the standpoint of the Average Joe, the corporate world is strange enough, as there's a ton of things behind an established brand that everyday people don't see and don't know. Now, a small part of what's behind Austrian bike manufacturer KTM is revealed: KTM's owner wants the company to become a private one and is buying the free-float shares.
KTM RC390 wallpaper 1 photo
Photo: KTM
CROSS KraftFahrZeug Holding GmbH (Cross) is one of Stefan Pierer's companies, and is the majority shareholder of KTM AG (KTM), with 51.4% of the shares. The other significant investor in KTM is the Indian motorcycle giant Bajaj, with a 48% participation in house Mattighoffen. Still, 0.6 percent of the KTM shares are now on the free-float market, and pretty much anyone can buy and sell them.

Cross wants KTM to become a privately owned company and is making a public purchase offer for the remainder of the shares. Cross is willing to pay €122.5 per share, which is equivalent to $127.4 by Google's exchange rates at the time of writing.

At the upcoming annual shareholders meeting, on April 21, Cross will seek to have the board of directors authorizing the withdrawal of shares from the Third Market (Dritten Markt) of the Vienna Stock Exchange.

KTM delisting its shares from the Vienna Stock Exchange will make it an entirely privately owned company, but this should not impact the consumers in any way. In fact, no longer being a public company should make KTM's life easier by making the decision process quicker thanks to fewer parties involved in the business. Also, this will leave KTM free from other formal obligations to the shareholders.

Now, if you feel like investing in KTM, there is still a way to do that, but by buying Cross shares, as the company is also listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange. WP, the in-house suspensions maker of KTM, is also under Cross' umbrella, and rumor has it that this company is also slated for withdrawal from the public market, most likely for the same reason of making the business flow smoother.

If you ask us, seeing KTM consolidating their business is a good thing. In a way, this looks a lot like having everything under the same roof regarding the MotoGP team.
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