Yamaha Motor has announced a technical partnership agreement with UK based race legend Lola Cars Ltd. The deal is for the development and supply of high-performance electric powertrains to be part of an official manufacturer in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, the world’s premier racing series for all-electric single-seater vehicles.
Finland based electric PTW manufacturer Verge Motorcycles will open its first U.S. stores in Los Angeles (Westfield Century City Shopping Center) and San Jose (Westfield Valley Fair Mall in San Jose), California, in June 2024. The company opened a U.S.-based Innovation Office in the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco in 2023.
Bill Melvin's Grand Rapids, Michigan based Buell Motorcycle Co. is looking for growth in international markets such as Japan, France, Spain, Brazil, Canada and Italy - markets that have been "instrumental for Buell Motorcycle clubs for decades. After being void in those markets for over ten years", Melvin says it "plans to regrow global distribution in these markets during the next few years." In a press release, the company announced that, with the support of the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Michigan Development Corporation, it has hired an experienced internal team to handle international dealers.
Italian brakes manufacturer Brembo reports Q1, 2024 results with revenues at € 1,004.6m (up +5.3% on a like-for-like exchange rate basis), with EBITDA at € 176.8m (17.6% margin), EBIT margin at 11.2% (€ 112.8 m) and net profit at € 75.2m. Net investments and increases in leased assets were at € 75.2m and net financial debt at € 529.5m (€ 357.5m prior to the application of IFRS 16), up € 23.1m compared to the period to 31 March 2023.
Central Banks around the world have warned bankers about failures to monitor private equity activity. A "creeping sense of complacency and lack of data" is said to be putting lenders at risk of exposure to "severe, unexpected losses". They are failing to "properly measure how exposed they are" to the fund bonus and yield-driven private equity industry culture, the BoE has warned. Similar warnings are going unheeded in the United States and elsewhere. The amount of assets managed by private equity businesses globally has grown at a rate of about 13% a year, rising from $2tn in 2012 to around $8tn in 2023, with individual funds also growing exponentially (Reuters).
The Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials (the AMA Land Speed Grand Championship and FIM Land Speed World Records) are slated for August 24-29, 2024 - weather permitting. They were called off in 2023, 2022 and 2015 due to flooding and in 2020 due to Covid; www.bonnevillemst.com
