Vittoria Sold to Italian Fund Wise Equity
Vittoria tires has been bought by Italian fund Wise Equity for a non-disclosed fee. Rudi Campagne, the current owner, will be retiring at age 79 in July, which allows Stijn Vriends of Wise Equity to take over as President and CEO. Campagne will remain on as non-executive in the Vittoria Board, and will become ‘honorary chairman for life’.
When Campagne first bought Vittoria in 1990, it was a much smaller company that employed fewer than 180 people. It has grown in the past 30 years to now employ 1,300 people and produces 7 million tires a year with annual sales of €60 million.
In recent years, Vittoria has invested heavily in six tyre factories in Thailand, which Mike Levy toured last year, where it produces tires for itself and other brands. Vittoria are also the only tyre brand that produces 4 compound tires and tires that use graphene with its Graphene 2.0 technology.
It's these graphene tires that Wise Equity seem most interested in, especially for e-bikes and urban bikes, and the news follows a recent claim from Vittoria that their graphene tires make e-MTB batteries last longer. Vriends said, "It’s more exciting than ever to be part of the ever-changing urban mobility landscape and our graphene tyre technology, developed for sport bicycles, can now become our dominant competitive edge in the urban bike category, as graphene tires are ideal for city-and-e-bikes, which need long endurance tires that don’t run flat."
Vittoria’s production & production development remains in Thailand, but it is now moving its European headquarters to a recently built €7 million office, test centre and warehouse in Bergamo, Italy. Campagne said: "Me and my partners eventually always wanted to bring the brand home to Italy, the cradle of the cycling world. Turning over the reins to Wise Equity therefore feels like the completion of a cycle."
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
[UPDATED] Final Elite XC Results & Overall Standings from the Mairiporã XC World Cup 2024
42453 views
42453 views
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup
Eurgh.
...then they go for your privates.
In 2011 I worked for a small company. The first month I was there,we were buy by a big venture capital found. Now that company is worth like 60 times more than the 12 or 20 million they initially paid for us. So it could be positive too for those who have a job there.
Good on Rudi Campagne for retiring though.
there are few cases to move company out of the business, how've I doubt this will happen;
I would assume that means a lot of OEM deals in nearest future, probably MOTO line up, etc..
Irrespective of that basic reality, the simple fact that their first move after buying the majority stake is to build a €7 million office complex in Bergamo to move the company to Italy says that "cut all costs possible" is just your bad interpretation of reality.
Next, if you think throwing money at real estate is a sign of long term investment growth in a brand, you are fooled by many. I can cite so many examples of organizations that have done this and bailed a 1years into the lease. So that argument is bunk.
And correcting your ignorance isn't "giving the hate"... but crying about a deal you know nothing about based on your bad experience sure is. I get it, you got bought out and kicked out and you're bitter. But you're reading about this today on Pinkbike and having a sook about it, I've known about since Friday and can say without any doubt that you don't have a clue wtf you're talking about.
PS - They're not buying a €7 million lease that they can walk away from in 1 year, they're dropping €7 million on building an office complex... so the only "bunk" argument is your's chief.
Comically naive? If you actually finished your MBA or wrote a few papers in M&A integration you would know that the number of M&A deals that fail is 65% to 90%. So while Im sorry my response was negative, thats just the reality of the M&A world, its tough and PE by its nature is one the most unforgiving.
And PPS - By landing and building a 7M office is a smart investment anyways. There are good case studies out there including Nike, VF that show this done recently, who both walked away with a healthy profit just on the land value alone. Consolidation of real estate, medium term investment, good use of capital, cheap when amortized and a stable mid- long return in a current volatile market. So no it doesn't mean they are in the for the long run. They are just cleaning up and looking for a buck along the way.
And the failure rate for M&A deals isn't very relevant to a deal that didn't fail. Really very little changes... Vittoria was bought by the current ownership in a smaller private equity deal in 1990, sure didn't ruin the company then now did it? But you're sitting here whining as though you have any insight, when in reality you don't know anything.
PPPS - Nice back pedal trying to cover for you ignorantly claiming that they were leasing property an hour ago to now pretending like you had a clue what you were talking about and what a smart investment you knew it was... I guess you're gonna pretend like you knew that they've also negotiated a collaboration with Graphene Flagship and are currently courting multiple additional advanced chemical suppliers, expanding capital investment rather than constricting it, as well huh?
Seriously... you may impress the Pinkbike botnet with your ignorance but you honestly know f*ck all about this deal. If you're half as integrated into the market as you're desperately trying to pretend to be, I suggest you make some calls, do some research, and figure out just how stupid you sound.
Real estate can be a short term lease or buy investment. Aside from cash, makes no difference. M&A failure isnt about the deal. For the love of god, the deal is at best a guess at the future. M&A fails due to due diligence yes, but more-so operational and integration issues that occur way after the deal has occurred.
Not trying to argue here dude. Maybe just agree to disagree and argue about bikes or some other stuff.
Dire che la ditta è italiana ed avere gli stabilimenti in Asia la dice tutta!
English:
Saying that the company is Italian and having the factories in Asia says it all!
A womb?
www.bicitech.it/files/2018/05/IMG-20180502-WA0002-1024x577.jpg