Match made in Italy? India’s Tata Motors rumoured to acquire a stake in Italian car designer and niche manufacturer Pininfarina SpA
(Source: Retuters India & Autoblog)
The family owners of Italian car designer and niche manufacturer Pininfarina SpA have hired Italy’s Banca Leonardo to sell their majority stake in the company, a company source said on Friday.
The decision was taken at the company’s board meeting on Wednesday, the source said. The sale of the 50.7 percent stake held by Pincar, the Pininfarina family company, was foreseen as part of a debt agreement with banks at end of 2008.
“It is a commitment Pincar made with the banks. The family has no intention of leaving completely,” the source said, adding Pincar will no longer be a majority shareholder.
Images via Apture: Multiple flavors of Pininfarina Designed Ferraris
Sure, but who will buy controlling interest of such a storied company? Have you met our Indian friend Tata? Rumors are swirling that Indian giant Tata, new owner of both Jaguar and Land Rover, is reportedly in the hunt to purchase the Pininfarina family’s shares.
Various other companies have been touted as possible partners for Pininfarina, which has designed stylish cars for Ferrari. Pininfarina is working with French financier Vincent Bollore on developing an electric car.
Earlier this week, Pininfarina said Pincar had subscribed its 50.7 percent share of a 70 million euros capital increase. The increase attracted overall 55.6 percent take-up. The Pincar subscription to the rights issue was also part of the end-2008 agreement with banks, the source said.
However, the reports are painting the pending deal as a partnership rather than a takeover and Tata already has dealings with Fiat, so they’re familiar with the Italian way of doing things. If a rival took more than a third of Pininfarina’s shares, it could put at risk its contract to April 2011 with Ford Motor Co. Pininfarinia builds the Ford Focus Coupe-Cabriolet at its plant in Bairo, near Turin, Italy. It also has a joint venture with Ford subsidiary Volvo Car Corp. to make the Volvo C70 at a plant in Uddevalla, Sweden.
Let’s see how it all shakes out!
