Upset for Royal Enfield? Union says Ducati not up for sale

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26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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The labour union representing super sports bike maker Ducati has opposed the sale of the company and has asked owner Volkswagen to retain the cult brand, which Audi had bought in 2012.

The Volkswagen management has assured IG Metall that it would "halt all sale proceedings for the time being", a Bloomberg report quoted a union official as saying.

The union is strongly in favour of keeping Ducati within the Volkswagen group and has urged the company to keep investing in the two-wheeler brand.

Royal Enfield, Bajaj Auto were among half a dozen bidders who were believed to have shown interest in buying the Bologna, Italy-based bike company.

While Bajaj eventually formed a non-equity partnership with UK’s Triumph, media reports stated that Royal Enfield was very much in the race for the acquisition.

Ducati

The sale of this prized asset would have fetched Volkswagen funds, which it could have used to pay for damages emerging from the 2015 Dieselgate scandal. VW hoped to raise USD 1.8 billion from the sale, a 50 percent premium over the USD 1.2 billion Audi paid five years ago to buy Ducati.

Eicher Motors-owned Royal Enfield, headed by Sidhartha Lal, makes leisure, off-road, cruiser and retro bikes under the brands Bullet, Classic, Thunderbird, Himalayan and Continental GT.

Ducati makes bikes having engines which are nearly four times bigger than the Classic 350, the largest selling Royal Enfield. The cost of a Royal Enfield Classic 350 will be Rs 1.3 lakh while the Ducati 1299 Panigale R Final Edition, one of its costliest bikes, is priced at Rs 60 lakh in India.

If Eicher Motors had won the bid to buy Ducati, it would have been the second biggest buyout by an Indian company in Europe in the automotive space. The largest buyout was done by Tata Motors when in 2008 it bought Jaguar Land Rover for USD 2.3 billion.

As at the end of FY17, Eicher Motors had total equity of Rs 5,345 crore and debt of Rs 1,645 crore.