Audi agree to buy Ducati

Volkswagen Audi has agreed to buy Ducati for about 860 million euros (£705m), two insiders have told the Reuters news agency.

The total includes Ducati’s debt, say Reuters, though it’s unclear how much that is.

Last week Ducati insiders told MCN an announcement on the deal will be made tomorrow (Wednesday), and that the purchase will be presented as being a 75th birthday present to VW chairman Ferdinand Piech.

Reuters also report that analysts at Credit Suisse questioned the industrial benefit of the Ducati purchase, saying it was an unnecessary sideshow to VW’s main challenges. “The Ducati acquisition is driven by VW’s passion for nameplates rather than industrial or financial logic,” said Credit Suisse’s Arndt Ellinghorst.