Benelli bankrupt! Or is it?

The Italian press is reporting Benelli is bankrupt, sort of.

According to this site, Benelli has been declared bankrupt by a judge after losing a court case to WP Suspension. Benelli owed WP over €100,000, and said they’d pay, but ended up in court anyway. The judge then said they were bankrupt, seized some of their motorcycles as payment, and left the company in a state of upheaval.

Benelli supposedly ran a €5.7-million deficit in 2015, and €800,000 deficit the year before, although they had supposedly turned the corner towards profitability this year. The company is no longer Italian-owned — the Qianjiang Group (based in China) purchased the marque a few years ago, adding them to a long list of Zombie Brands from Europe. For more thoughts on that process, see The Insider’s take on the issue, from a few months ago.

What’s next? Reportedly, the case is headed to appeal. It’s hard to imagine Benelli’s deep-pocketed Chinese owners scrapping their investment, especially after they made the effort of putting up such a showing at EICMA. They are telling people they intend to pay their debts, and have even started to do so. The whole affair, while straightforward on the surface, would undoubtedly be very interesting if one peeled back a layer or two.