BMW Announces Sale of Husqvarna

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com

The deal’s done. In what it described as a “strategic realignment” of its business, BMW Motorrad today announced the sale of the Husqvarna motorcycle brand to Pierer Industrie AG, a company owned by KTM chief executive officer Stefan Pierer.

The price of the purchase was not disclosed. Also unknown is how the deal will impact Pierer’s position with KTM. The deal comes less than five years from after BMW bought Husqvarna from MV Agusta.

In a release, BMW said, “In the context of changing motorcycle markets, demographic trends and increasing environmental demands, BMW Motorrad will expand its product offering to exploit future growth potential. The focus of the realignment will be on urban mobility and e-mobility. By restructuring the segment, the BMW Group will concentrate on expanding and utilizing the resources of the BMW Motorrad brand.”

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A strong fourth quarter with worldwide sales growth of seven percent enabled Harley-Davidson to record a full-year sales increase of 6.2 percent for 2012 over 2011. A total of 249,849 new motorcycles were sold. U.S. sales were up 6.6 percent. Sales in Latin America were up 39.2 percent, while sales in the Asia Pacific region increased 14.3 percent.

Earnings per share for 2012 was $2.72, up 16.7 percent from $2.33 in 2011. Full-year income was continuing operations was $623.9 million on consolidated revenue of $5.58 billion.