More talk of restructuring from MV Agusta

The rumblings of change continue to trickle out of MV Agusta, with an official press release saying there’s restructuring coming — and no straight talk as to what that restructuring will be.

Earlier this month, we told you of rumours MV Agusta would throttle back production, in an attempt to reduce overhead costs and cut back on the time money was tied up between production of the bike and payment. This would mean layoffs at MV Agusta; there was also talk of a buyout from Mercedes.

Now, MV Agusta has released an official press release, confirming the company is talking about changes. Unfortunately, there is no clear statement of where they’re headed. The press release reads in part that:

“MV Agusta has decided to hold its ground together with the employees and its creditors by means a composition with creditors proceeding to request continuity that will allow the company to be able to restructure and generate positive growth returns for its stakeholders.

MV Agusta is a company with tremendous potential, as demonstrated by the trend of the last five years, with a growth from 30 to 100 millions of turnover, in the unique unmistakable nature of its products and especially in its reinforced Italian identity. We are currently a company that is continually growing, boasting a strong order book for 2016 and a backorder generated by new models which marks an increase of 42% over the previous year, as well as improved sales of +36% for March 2015.

With the active involvement of all its employees and a reinforced management structure, MV Agusta has already identified the strategy aimed at consolidating and strengthening corporate values, as well as the protection of the company’s stakeholders. We are confident that – overcoming the current situation of financial liquidity – our company will recover and achieve economic results that satisfy the expectations of our employees and our creditors.”

So what does that mean? It sounds as if they’re hoping for more time from creditors, but it’s not really an overly helpful source of information. The very fact this was released is interesting, though — it means things are certainly in flux, and we way see the face of the Italian brand changing yet again in coming months. The company has certainly prospered under the Castiglioni reign, at least in some respects; the R&D they’ve done has paid off with a lineup of desirable models. But a showroom lineup that inspires covetousness is not the only factor needed to run a successful motorcycle manufacturer, as we are seeing today.