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Last Sunday, KTM placed all four riders (Viñales/4th, Binder/6th, Acosta/7th, Bastianini/9th) in the top ten in the Jerez MotoGP. This was a welcome ray of hope after the mediocre results of the previous competitions, since Motorsport Director, Pit Beirer, was already hoping for a podium finish at the opening race in Buriram, Thailand.
However, the toughest race for KTM AG is currently taking place elsewhere. The insolvent Austrian motorcycle manufacturer must raise €600 million Euros by Friday, May 23rd (the first day of practice at the British Motor Cycle Grand Prix in Silverstone) in order to be able to transfer the 30% quota to creditors on time.
Restructuring Administrator Peter Vogl originally planned for PIERER Mobility AG to pay the €600 million Euros to its creditors within two years of February 25th, 2025, as repayment of the 30% quota. When some creditor banks were not satisfied with this quota, KTM promised to pay the €600 million Euros by May 23rd, 2025.
The PIERER Mobility AG financial holding comapny is owned (with approximately 75%) by Pierer Bajaj AG that, in turn, is owned by former KTM CEO Stefan Pierer (with 50.1%), and by its Indian partner, Bajaj Auto (with 49.9%).
The US investment bank, Citigroup, has been seeking new investors for KTM AG for almost six months. While there have been no written commitments so far, the international US investment firms, Apollo and BlackRock, are continuing negotiations with KTM and are interested in revitalizing Europe's largest motorcycle manufacturer with fresh venture capital. The Canadian group, Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP), with brands such as Rotax, Ski-Doo, Lynx, and CanAm, also wants to acquire KTM. However, it was recently rumored that BRP may be planning to acquire a majority stake in parts of the company only after a potential collapse.
KTM must put its cards on the table in just under three weeks, when it will have to pay off the €600 million Euros promised to its creditors. However, in the 'ast two weeks, mostly unpleasant news has come to light at KTM. Firstly, on May 29the, the postponement of the final 2024 annual financial report was announced, because the auditors would not approve the figures until the company's financing for the next twelve months was secured.
KTM then went public with its preliminary business figures, which were shocking. While the Pierer Group reported an operating profit of around €160 million Euros in 2023, the 2024 Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) was in the red by €484 million Euros. The EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes), which was significantly more negative, includes depreciations totaling €854 million Euros, according to the ad hoc announcement. The company expects the restructuring measures to greatly reduce the net debt, specifically a restructuring gain of approximately €1.3 billion Euros. "This would also make equity significantly positive again, in the high three-digit million range," reported Pierer's management.
The company's workforce has fallen by 874 to 5,310 since last year, 4,099 of whom are in Austria. An additional 750 employees were laid off in the first three months of 2025, according to Pierer Mobility.
The KTM Group sold 292,497 motorcycles last year, 21% fewer than the year before. In its 2023 record year, Pierer sold 381,555 motorcycles.
Yet, there is more bad news. Since the end of April, KTM has been experiencing another three-month production shut-down because several suppliers still have unpaid invoices from 2024 and are apparently only delivering against advance payment, for the time being. Furthermore, the supply chain had to be restarted after the first production shut-down (which lasted from December 13th, 2024 to March 17th, 2025).
The new CEO, Gottfried Neumeister, explained that he had desperately asked the suppliers for support, but the delivery deadline was at least 20 weeks. By mid-April, the spare parts warehouses were empty, so another production shut-down followed after six weeks. Corporate holidays will be moved from August to July. Until then, short-time work will apply, meaning employees will have to forgo 25% of their wages.
The insolvency of Motorcycle Manufacturer KTM is likely to have led to disagreements between long-time KTM CEO Stefan Pierer and Stephan Zöchling, co-owner and CEO of Exhaust System Manufacturer Remus. Zöchling took over the role as the new chairman of the supervisory board of KTM's parent company, Pierer Mobility AG, since January, and he has also hinted that he is one of the potential KTM investors.
According to media reports from yesterday, Friday, Pierer has pledged shares in Zöchling's Dabepo Holding, which the latter now intends to cash in on, due to a lack of timely repayment.
According to the newspaper Österreich, Zöchling helped Pierer with 65 million Euros in the winter. Pierer pledged shares in Zöchling's Dabepo Holding for this purpose. The money was supposed to be repaid by April 19th, but this never happened. According to an online report by the Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, Pierer needed the funds to reverse an intra-group transaction. KTM AG returned the 49% it had previously received in the real estate company, Pierer Immoreal GmbH, and received €35 million Euros in return for the restructuring process. It was reported that, after Zöchling failed to recuperate the €65 million Euros (some sources even spoke of €78 million Euros), he is now offering the shares for sale to banks and other interested parties.
A spokesperson for Pierer told the Austrian Press Agency (APA) that currently "no creditor of Pierer Konzerngesellschaft Ltd. has a due claim and a right to issue or initiate such issuance of securities granted to them by Pierer Konzerngesellschaft Ltd." So far, they are not aware of any attempts at this. They intend to initiate legal action "against all impermissible attempts."
Word has come from Switzerland that KTM management intends to transfer the contracts they have with Dorna Sports S.A. for the two Red Bull KTM Factory Team slots in the MotoGP World Championship (Binder and Acosta will compete there in 2025) from Austria to the Swiss subsidiary, KTM Racing AG, in Frauenfeld. The current five-year contract will terminate at the end of 2026, and negotiations are already underway for a new one until 2031. Incidentally, the two Tech3 slots belong to team owner Hervé Poncharal.
This move would allow the two MotoGP starting slots in the premier class - which will increase significantly in value following the planned takeover of Dorna by Formula1 promoter Liberty Media - to be sold to an investor or shared with an investor because, they would not be affected by ongoing financial problems of the KTM parent company. Dorna has already received four serious requests for the two KTM slots. Lewis Hamilton is not one of them.
For the time being, there is much uncertainty surrounding the insolvency proceedings at KTM AG. Employees have been on short-time work for no less than six months in seven and a half months, with a 25% loss of income. At the same time, the company is operating a complex international motorsport program with 40 factory riders from KTM, Husqvarna, and GASGAS, even though only 4,200 of the 230,000 motorcycles planned for 2025 had been produced by the end of June.
Getting the supply chain back up and running at full capacity by July 27th will certainly be a daunting challenge for the new CEO, Gottfried Neumeister. Experts say a motorcycle consists of up to 3,000 individual parts, and KTM offers 52 models, Husqvarna 25, GASGAS 10 , plus 5 trials bikes. This makes an impressive total of 92 motorcycle models.
The Pierer Group still had sales of $1 million Euros in the United States in 2023. It is uncertain how many motorcycles can still be sold in the US in the second half of 2025, due to the delayed completion and the new US tariffs.
