There's a Rumor Can-Am Owner Wants to Buy KTM, But Only At Firesale Price

That'd be a helluva team-up.

Photo by: RideApart.com

By: Jonathon Klein

May 6, at 7:53am ET

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There's no shortage of news on KTM at present. The Austrian motorcycle brand has increasingly become the topic of everyone's conversation as, well, they done screwed up. And screwed up badly.

Last year, the brand announced that it was basically going under, entered insolvency protection, stated it sold almost no motorcycles, had a year's worth of inventory sitting on lots, owned billions to creditors, bought and then re-sold MV Agusta, was forced to announce it'd leave MotoGP by 2026, and faced countless layoffs.

This year, however, was meant to turn it around, as an investor was found to help keep it afloat—Bajaj—and production, which had been paused in November, finally resumed in March. But then it was paused again as the debt repayment plan it had agreed to fell through. Likewise, the failure of the repayment plan, along with other factors, has spurred a power struggle within KTM's board of directors that could finally lead to someone other than Stefan Pierer calling the shots.

But now a new player has entered the chat, as there's a rumor that Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP), the parent company of Can-Am, Ski-Doo, and Sea-Doo, are potentially looking at purchasing KTM outright. Only, however, if it's at fire-sale prices.

According to GPOne, BRP is one of the interested outfits in acquiring KTM, or parts of the brand, as it already owns the engine company Rotax, which powers many of KTM's motorcycles.

"The US investment bank, Citigroup, has been seeking new investors for KTM AG for almost six months. While there have been no written commitments so far, the international US investment firms, Apollo and BlackRock, are continuing negotiations with KTM and are interested in revitalizing Europe's largest motorcycle manufacturer with fresh venture capital," says the outlet. However, it's the rumor that comes next that addresses the elephant in the room.

"The Canadian group, Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP), with brands such as Rotax, Ski-Doo, Lynx, and CanAm, also wants to acquire KTM," it says, adding this kicker, "However, it was recently rumored that BRP may be planning to acquire a majority stake in parts of the company only after a potential collapse."

I reached out to BRP, who stated, "Our organization is always looking for ways to achieve long-term profitable growth. In addition to focusing on organic growth, our team monitors and evaluates M&A opportunities on a regular basis. However, our policy is to not publicly comment on such rumors or speculations."

Now, a few weeks ago, I would likely have said that KTM's ruin wasn't likely. Even today, I don't think the company will ever fully disintegrate. It'll get saved. That said, I could see it completely going under before it's bought at a cut-rate price, especially given the precarious position KTM now finds itself in.

But again, KTM won't die completely, yet it may need to die a little just to be reborn from the ashes.