Investors needed

KTM

BMW motorcycles can also be seen in the Superbike World Championship - as seen here recently at the race in Australia.

(Bild: EPA/Joel Carrett)

Will the creditors accept the restructuring plan and thus KTM's 30 percent quota or will they reject the offer from the motorcycle manufacturer that has slipped into insolvency? The motto ahead of the hearing at the regional court in Ried im Innkreis, which starts at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, is "anything is possible". Meanwhile, the rumor mill is churning in the background. Because: BMW is also said to be vying for a stake in KTM.

"I had expected that there would be even more applications to file claims after the verification hearing, but many creditors are likely to have already adhered to the filing deadline," says Petra Wögerbauer from Kreditschutzverband von 1870.

The KSV1870 insolvency team, as well as the employees of the other creditor protection associations - Creditreform and AKV - have been under enormous pressure in recent weeks to file the claims against KTM AG, KTM Components GmbH and KTM Forschungs & Entwicklungs GmbH with the regional court in Ried im Innkreis on time.

"Many complex challenges"
"This is an insolvency of an extraordinary size with many complex challenges," confirms Iris Scharitzer from the Austrian Creditreform Association. It was particularly important to the creditors' representatives that the vote on the restructuring plan could take place smoothly on Tuesday - even if the focus will be primarily on the banks and financial institutions, as they are shouldering the majority of the claims against KTM.

The mountain of debt had grown to 2.235 billion euros in recent weeks for the three companies, which all slipped into insolvency on November 29, 2024. This means that around 600 million euros are due in order to pay the restructuring quota of 30 percent. Another 150 million euros will be needed to ramp up production.

Indian Pierer partner Bajaj as the "logical" investor
Who will take on these amounts? It is said that KTM owner Pierer Mobility will provide the 150 million euros for the resumption of production. The Indian Pierer partner Bajaj has already pledged 50 million euros. The 600 million euros to settle the restructuring quota are likely to come from an investor. Who will that be? Bajaj has been mentioned repeatedly in recent weeks, as the Indian company already plays an important role as a supplier and sales partner. Bajaj had already been mentioned as a possible investor to finance the restructuring of KTM at the first court hearing in the course of the insolvency proceedings. At that time, however, the offers were not yet binding.

BMW Motorrad achieved record sales in the previous year
Stephan Zöchling, Remus owner and member of the Pierer Industrie AG Board of Management since January 1 and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Pierer Mobility AG since January 27, has also made no secret of his interest. Talks are also apparently underway with BMW. The motorcycle brand of the German premium manufacturer set a sales record last year, delivering 210,408 motorcycles. The largest market was Germany. To put this into perspective: 268,000 motorcycles from the KTM Group were sold to end customers in the previous year.