The family owners of Italian car designer and niche manufacturer Pininfarina SpA have hired Italy’s Banca Leonardo to sell their majority stake in the company, a company source said Friday, the 7th of August.

The decision was taken at a board meeting on Wednesday, August 12th, the source said.

The sale of the 50.7 percent stake held by Pincar, the Pininfarina family company, was part of the debt agreement with banks at the end of 2008.

“It is a commitment Pincar made with the banks. The family has no intention of leaving completely,” the source said, adding Pincar would no longer be a majority shareholder.

Earlier this week, Pininfarina said Pincar had subscribed for its 50.7 percent share of a 70 million euros capital increase. The increase attracted overall 55.6 percent take-up.

The Pincar subscription to the rights issue was also part of the end-2008 agreement with banks, the source said.

Various companies have been suggested as possible partners for Pininfarina, which has designed cars for Ferrari. Pininfarina is working with French financier Vincent Bollore on developing an electric car.

Bollore has said he would consider taking a stake in Pininfarina. Libero said on Friday, August 7th, India’s Tata Motors Ltd, already allied with Fiat SpA, had been mentioned as an investor last year.

The source declined to say what possible buyers, whether they would be industrial or financial, or on the timetable for a deal.

Libero said that if a rival took more than a third of Pininfarina’s shares this would put at risk its contract with Ford Motor Co. to produce cars through April 2011.

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Source: reuters.com

The Italian company Pininfarina is known around the world for car designing.

The family’s holding Pincar has agreed with the creditor banks to sell its 50.6 per cent stake in the group, Pininfarina and would choose an advisor by February 28, 2009 as part of the deal. It designed and manufactured cars for Ferrari, Maserati and Ford, among others. The decision is part of the deal with a consortium of banks that includes Italy’s biggest lenders UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo to which it owes nearly 600m euros ($839.5m). At the end of November 2008, the net debt was 597.7 million euros.

As part of the agreement, 180 million euros of debt will be assumed by Pincar to give Pininfarina the working capital it needs for 2009. Last Wednesday’s deal reschedules its other debts.

The deal has to be implemented by the end of January. Without the deal, 2008 losses would have wiped out the company’s capital.

Pininfarina said the restructuring deal was a way to “[restore] equilibrium to Pininfarina’s balance sheet and financial position.”

The potential buyer of Pincar Holding’s stake will have to launch a bid on the remaining stake in Pininfarina.

Buyers for the stake may include the French tycoon Vincent Bollore who a year ago established a joint venture with Pininfarina to build an electric car.

Bollore’s French industrial group is to produce the B0 (pronounced “B Zero”), Pininfarina’s first full-scale, four door, electric city car with an estimated 153 mile range dedicated to the late Andrea Pininfarina.

Ratan Tata is also believed to be interested, but the head of the Tata Industrial conglomerate is already working on bailing out Jaguar Land Rover in Britain in his recent acquisition.

The company’s troubles began with the personal tragedy in August when Andrea Pininfarina, the company’s chairman and the grandson of its founder Battista (“Pinin”) Farina,  died on the way to work after his Vespa motor scooter collided with a Ford Focus.

His death provoked an outpouring of grief among the Italian motor manufacturing fraternity and prompted a statement of condolence from Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister, who described him as “representative of a dynasty that helped bring the story of ‘made in Italy’ to the world.”

Known by his nickname “Pinin” – which means “the youngest” in Piedmontese dialect – Battista Farina went to America in 1920 and met Henry Ford, who offered him a job, but decided to return to Italy. There, in 1930, he founded Carrozzeria Pinin Farina, near the heart of the country’s growing motor industry, designing cars for Lancia, Isotta Franschini, Fiat and Alfa Romeo. In 1961, the President of Italy personally authorized his change of name to Pininfarina.

Pininfarina B0 (Pronounced B-Zero)

Source: business.timesonline.co.uk, ft.com, luxist.com, reuters.com, and printthis.clickability.com