The biggest motorcycle news this fall has been KTM’s financial implosion. So what does that mean for the brand’s many race teams? For now, it seems it’s business as usual… sort of.
Pierer AG, the parent company behind KTM AG—which is itself the parent company of KTM, GasGas and Husqvarna—has been sounding the alarm for months now, downgrading its financial outlook this year and then eliminating it all together. And somehow, things got worse from there, with a note from the company in mid-November stating KTM AG needed to raise millions and to catch a break from creditors to keep operations running smoothly.
Finally, in the last week of November, Pierer AG said it had entered a Restructuring Ordance to protect them in the middle of their financial straits. This appears to be some sort of self-administered bankruptcy protection plan in the Austrian market—read the full statement here.
The important details are in the opening of the statement, where it appears Pierer AG says it wants to pay all its creditors, it just needs more time—and that’s the plan they’re working out.
No doubt more info is coming soon on that plan; we already see the motorcycle press in Europe breathlessly repeating rumors of the size of KTM AG’s debt. But we also see questions and rumors about the future of their racing program, as KTM is heavily involved in MotoGP at every level, as well as the Dakar Rally.
For now, it appears that all those race programs are still a go. KTM’s website has been freshly filled with new details on their rally raid lineup (gone are the Husqvarna and GasGas teams, which ran basically the same bike; they’re down to only a single KTM team with Daniel Sanders riding alongside brothers Kevin and Luciano Benavides).
As for roadracing: Crash.net says they’ve been told Tech3 is doing business as usual in MotoGP, including an upcoming private test at Jerez. Perhaps we’ll see changes in the feeder classes, or maybe the GasGas-branded teams will switch to the KTM brand. However, for now, this division of the KTM empire is reportedly not facing the same funding slashes as the rest of the groups, which means, at least for 2025, we can expect Tech3 to continue running a KTM factory GP program, and we’ll probably see KTM’s riders in the feeder classes.
After 2026? That’s a long way away to worry about, for a company that’s trying to solve its here-and-now problems.
They have a huge presence in Moto3, racing the same bikes under the KTM, GasGas and CFMoto labels. The only other player is Honda. What becomes of that ?