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The next seven weeks will determine whether insolvency administrator Peter Vogl will succeed in implementing the planned restructuring process on KTM AG's own responsibility, which was applied for on December 20th. All those involved are now eagerly awaiting the examination meeting on January 24th, which will determine whether the restructuring plan presented will be approved and whether the creditors can be convinced of its usefulness. In addition to KTM AG, two other companies from the Pierer empire, KTM Components GmbH and KTM F&E GmbH, have filed for insolvency.
In total, liabilities amount to 1.8 billion euros. From the opening of the insolvency proceedings to the final vote on the restructuring plan and the restructuring measures on February 25th, company boss Stefan Pierer and his new Co-CEO Gottfried Neumeister (in office as the new KTM board member and later Pierer's successor since September 21st) only have 90 days to raise fresh capital. 540 million alone are needed to meet the 30 percent quota of creditors (including 180 banks).
Since December 20, it has been clear that the previous Pierer shareholders and partners Bajaj Auto in India and CFMOTO in China intend to participate in the restructuring and rescue of KTM. Also the investment company FountainVest from Hong Kong has announced that they are interested to contribute fresh capital to Pierer.
The US investment bank Citigroup has been commissioned to find investors for the largest European motorcycle manufacturer, which sold 381,555 motorcycles in 2023 and will have to limit itself to an output of 250,000 motorized two-wheelers next year. For this reason, production in Austria was shut down from December 13 to the end of February. Finally, the stocks of around 130,000 motorcycles urgently need to be reduced. The workforce in Upper Austria will be reduced to 3,700 employees. Around 750 jobs were cut, also in the administration department.
On December 20, Stefan Pierer indicated to creditors that he would use his own capital to help restructure his life's work. He will apparently be selling assets from his Wels based real estate company .
There is probably no way around the fact that Pierer will lose influence in the financial holding company Pierer Mobility AG and KTM AG in the future.
Because a potential new majority owner will exercise sufficient voting rights and also put his own trusted people in place on the board of KTM AG.
The 68-year-old Styrian Stefan Pierer, who began his entrepreneurial career as a "restructuring expert", will most likely no longer be able to act as a "main shareholder" after the insolvency proceedings. His Pierer Industrie AG currently holds 50.1 percent of the intermediate holding company Pierer Bajaj AG, while the Indian Bajaj Group owns 49.9 percent.
The aforementioned Pierer Bajaj AG holds 74% of Pierer Mobility AG, the rest of the shares are in free float - i.e. 26%.
The fresh capital, which comes from Bajaj, CFMOTO, the investment company FountainVest from Hong Kong or from a previously unknown investor who could be convinced by Citigroup, is intended to strengthen the insolvent KTM and its core business.
The Pierer Group therefore has to make further painful decisions and divest itself of some investments, subsidiaries or brands in order to raise some cash.
In addition, at the beginning of the year, Pierer Mobility AG sent out an invitation to the extraordinary general meeting, which was scheduled for January 27, 2025 in Munderfing (10 a.m.).
The agenda includes:
1. Elections to the Supervisory Board.
2. Resolution on the authorization of the Board of Management to issue financial instruments, in particular convertible bonds, profit-sharing bonds and profit-participation rights, which may also grant the subscription and/or exchange right to acquire shares in the company, including the exclusion of the shareholders' subscription right to these financial instruments, with revocation of the existing authorization of April 21, 2023.
3. Resolution on the conditional increase in the company's share capital in accordance with the issue to creditors of financial instruments, with revocation of the existing conditional increase in the share capital in accordance with the Annual General Meeting resolution of April 21, 2023 and the corresponding amendment to the Articles of Association.
Attentive observers from the KTM empire report that Stefan Pierer and his co-CEO Gottfried Neumeister are working around the clock to initiate all the requirements for a successful restructuring in good time.
Word got around in Upper Austria that the creditor banks would have preferred a trusteeship restructuring. Pierer managed to resist such an approach because he did not want to be forced into incapacity to act while saving his life's work, for which he had been working since 1992 (at that time with 150 employees and 6,000 motorcycles sold per year). 
All business areas that are not part of KTM's core business are now under scrutiny. This applies to the X-BOW sports car project, a lightweight and high-performance car for real individualists with a radical design. The models became increasingly expensive and more powerful; the X-BOW GT-XR road version can do 280 km/h and costs 339,000 euros. It is powered by a 2.5-liter biturbo five-cylinder engine from Audi and the road version produces 500 hp.
The racing version for the GT series produces 630 hp. But the interest of potential buyers in this high-tech niche product, of which only a limited number of 100 units are produced per year in the X Bow factory in Graz, is not limitless.
An equally challenging task awaits those responsible in KTM at the Italian brand MV Agusta, where the stake was increased from 25.1% to 50.1 % in March 2024. Now MV Agusta CEO Hubert Trunkenpolz has no choice but to negotiate with the previous MV owners Senior Rashid and son Timur Sardarov about reversing the sale. The separation from MV Agusta was announced on December 20th.
The Pierer Group's loss-making bicycle business is also being drastically scaled back.
The contracts for the sale of the e-bike brand R Raymon to its founders, Susanne and Felix Puello, announced in September 2023, were finally signed in December 2023.
The US brand FELT Bicycles, which was bought in 2021 for 12 million US dollars, was supposed to be sold in December 2023 to a consortium led by Florian Burguet, who was then Chief Sales Officer for New Mobility at KTM.
The deal has not yet been completed, but now there is talk in Spain and at MTB World Cup events that Ing. César Rojo junior has made an offer for FELT together with Burguet and that the takeover of FELT could go ahead soon.
Does the name César Rojo sound familiar to some motorcycle GP fans? No wonder. We are talking of the son of Cesar Rojo senior, who was once successful as a team manager of the factory Bultaco and Derbi teams (80 and 125 cc) with riders such as Nieto, Tormo, Herreros and Martinez, and who later discovered the young Marc Márquez as head of KTM España and hired him for the KTM 125 cc CEV team at the age of 15.
The young César Rojo competed in downhill mountain bike races, then designed chassis for KTM motorcycles for seven years and built MTB frames for Mondraker, before becoming a bicycle manufacturer himself with the exclusive UNNO brand.
The good news: The KTM brand should be saved in the next few weeks, because the urgently needed fresh capital is in sight. On February 25th, the acceptance of the restructuring plan will be finally negotiated and voted on.
Investors have regained confidence in the KTM brand: the share price has increased by 69.71% in the last month.
