Benelli

[lundinoir]

Looks like I won't be getting a TVR superbike just yet...

[b]Chinese giant buys Italian motorcycle maker Benelli:[/b]

[i]Rome:[/i] China's Qianjiang Group Co. Ltd has clinched a deal with Gruppo Merloni for the purchase of celebrated Italian motorcycle maker Benelli, reports said Thursday.

The deal follows assurances from Qianjiang's management that Benelli scooters and motorcycles will continue to be built at its Pesaro factory in central Italy.

Qianjiang is China's biggest motorcycle maker and the deal represents its first acquisition in Europe.

Established in 1911 by Teresa Benelli, a widow, in the hope of providing work to her six sons, the company started as a car and motorcycle repair garage and built its first motorcycle in 1921.

Benelli motorbikes won a number of championship titles both before and after World War II and by the early 1960s, the company was producing around 300 motorcycles daily.

Benelli then suffered badly from competition from Japan but enjoyed a revival in the 1990s, when it was taken over by Italian electrical appliance maker Merloni.

[url]URL|http://www.newkerala.com/newsdaily.php?action=fullnews&id=22870[/url]

[SXS]

But didnt someone say NS bought Benelli????

[lundinoir]

SXS said:

But didnt someone say NS bought Benelli????

That's what I thought too until I saw this news...

[Terminator]

SXS said:

But didnt someone say NS bought Benelli????

That 'someone' was NS, according to Pravda. Doesn't Pravda translate as 'the truth'?

Someones telling porkies

http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/89/355/15956_Benelli.html

[SXS]

I like this bit from that pravda link:

"PistonHeads magazine wrote with reference to its sources in the TVR that the acquisition of the motorcycle-making company originally sprang from Nikolai Smolensky himself. "Nick was happy to buy it. That is why they prepared some space to organize Benelli's production on the factory," a source that wished to remain anonymous told the magazine."

We're a magazine!!!!

[SXS]

I tell ya one thing, NS must be seriously cheesed off with the chinese.

They snapped up MGRover, and now they snapped up Benelli.

Next? TVR? I dare to think!

[Terminator]

SXS said:

I tell ya one thing, NS must be seriously cheesed off with the chinese.

I tell people I've bought something when I've actually got it and payment has been exchanged. If you tell the world that you've bought something when you haven't, you have only yourself to blame...

Unless NS owns Qianjiang?

[V8 Archie]

At the time of the original announcement I remember reading something about the smaller-engined Benelli's being manufactured under license by the Chinese. Whether this has anything to do with the latest story or not I don't know.

[grandchris]

Terminator said:

SXS said: But didnt someone say NS bought Benelli???? That 'someone' was NS, according to Pravda. Doesn't Pravda translate as 'the truth'? Someones telling porkies http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/89/355/15956_Benelli.html

Maybe NS is telling porkies!

[grandchris]

SXS said:

I tell ya one thing, NS must be seriously cheesed off with the chinese. They snapped up MGRover, and now they snapped up Benelli. Next? TVR? I dare to think!

The truth is that Price Waterhouse did not let NS bid for MG Rover because of undisclosed information about his business dealings. I don't know anything about Benelli; however he could of bought it then sold it or bought it but could not pay for it!

[PetrolTed]

grandchris said:

... or bought it but could not pay for it!

Let's not speculate so negatively eh? The facts will emerge in the next few days.

[lundinoir]

PetrolTed said:

grandchris said: ... or bought it but could not pay for it! Let's not speculate so negatively eh? The facts will emerge in the next few days.

Well said Ted. I never intended for all the negativity when I posted this thread.