MV have been a shower of brown for quite a while now. KTM didn't improve the situation at all, quite the opposite in my opinion. Spares are non existent even for new bikes with warranty claims taking months to resolve and owners looking for parts on the used market. The triples still have the same problems they had 10 years ago and the build quality and design is a long way from the glorious F4. As I first generation F4 owner I'm certainly biased but you couldn't give me a new MV.
Yes, I realised that in the middle of the night after I posted. Following the rabbit warren, I’m guessing KTM motorcycles is probably the most robust of the companies listed in the self administration document. Andy
KTM just need some new designers. Their bikes are fucking awesome to ride, but look like shite. If they can nail that, they’ll be laughing all the way to the bank. And STOP discounting them all the time.
I'd like them to keep the discounts going, sell more and recover- with a 100K bikes in storage they surely need to get a lot of them sold...
It seems the latest is they do definitely owe c€3 billion and the administrators are talking to the creditors to get them to accept a 70% haircut on what’s owed to them. There are a lot of suppliers throughout Austria and across Europe who are going to get badly burnt.
Guess 70% better than nothing. But it’s all about the money men making money. It’s what is destroying everything: just numbers on a balance sheet
I’ll be honest, lots of comments ref KTM looks, I like they try to be a bit different, but I do wonder if they are the ‘Vauxhall’ of motorbikes… by this I refer to when circa 2015 Vauxhall just started smashing the biggest wheels and body kits on their cars that they could and yet the actually product just wasn’t that nicely put together. I’ve not owned a KTM but have spoken to lots of people that say they are fine if you ‘really keep on top of them and look after them’ else they look super tired quickly
I think you will find they are / have. My local dealer has ordered alot less 2025 bikes this year. He says thats it and when they are gone they are gone so by laws of physics they wont have anything to discount. I know 2 others that are working the same way. I guess there will be others who dont and they need to shift the bike surplus that if often quoted but with all these problems they have things will change at KTM
I thought that it was KTM insisting that dealers have to accept a certain number of bikes that has caused the oversupply issue. Maybe it's an economy of scale thing that the factory sees and the early adopters, and dealers, pay the price. IMHO it really does the brand image no favours whatsoever, can't see the sense in it from a marketing perspective.
IMO you’d have to ask how they’ll come back from this. I certainly wouldn’t buy one with their future in doubt. It might become a self-fulfilling prophecy…..
I saw an email from AdvRider the other day, mentioning the new KTM 390 Supermoto, so what’s actually going on at KTM?
My honest opinion is they may well end up being ahead of the game with Indian or Chinese money behind them. I don’t think there will be many European car or bike manufacturers who are not owned by Asia in 10 years time.
Correct, they get 70% of their debt written off and only receive €0.30 cents in the €1.00 euro. Thus out of the €3,000 million owed to suppliers only €900 million is being offered to settle the debt. That’s going to be potentially ruinous for some suppliers . Is 30 pence in the pound better than nothing? Certainly. But how many of those suppliers will want to deal with the new KTM going forwards after having their fingers so badly burned? How many new suppliers will want to enter into business with the new KTM seeing how their forebears got burnt? It’s a mess and yet the same senior management who made the mess seem to be at the helm still. On the plus side, KTM seem to be doing well at the Dakar, but then so too are Kove. I really do struggle to see anyone walking into a KTM dealership and buying a brand new bike at present or in the coming months.
I've worked for Eddie Jordan's F1 team years ago. When they got into financial trouble and suppliers weren't paid the deal going forward was quite simple. The same suppliers were happy enough to work with us but everything doubled in price and was paid upfront. I imagine that's going to be the way KTM's creditors are going to work too.
Precisely. Which just exacerbates the issues for KTM with regards to how much money will be required to rescue them as their working capital requirement going forwards will have to increase exponentially. Someone has to pump in money to save the business then potentially pump in almost as much again to fund stock for components for builds and general expenses whilst waiting weeks or months for the output to be sold and cash to flow back.
