Sachs Motorcycles Taken Over by Hong Kong Investors

BIKE EUROPE: NEURENBURG, Germany (March 14) - According to a press release from Sachs Fahrzeuge und Motorentechnik GmbH in Nürnberg, Germany, the company has been taken over by New Seperior Ltd. a subsidiary of a Hong kong based Investor Group. Although the price has not been disclosed, it is expected that the value was very low since the German company was plagued by financial difficulties for a while. Winning Wheels took over Sachs Motorcycles from Mannesmann in September 1998. On 12 February 2001, a management buyout took place thus giving three managers (President Oliver Schnorr, R&D Manager Hartmut Huhn and Financial Manager Karl-Heinz Summerer) control of Sachs Fahrzeug und Motorentechnik (FMT) GmbH. At that time Oliver Schnorr, a turnaround manager expected to put the company back on it's feet. As commented by some internal sources, the actual financial difficulties were caused mainly by old pension obligations. Mr. Corrado Savazzi has been appointed as the sole managing director of the company. While R&D Manager Hartmut Huhn and Financial Manager Karl-Heinz Summerer remain in their operating positions, Oliver Schnorr shall take an advising position within the new group. The investor group and Sachs are expecting significant synergy from a strong traditional brand, high quality standards, engineering research and development as well as low production cost in Asia. R&D and the assembly shall remain in Nürnberg. The company A-act Gamma-Med GmbH shall be in charge of E-Bikes and Saxonette assembly in Nürnberg. In Germany, Sachs FMT imports the Italian Malaguti and the Taiwanese Sanyang scooters. Earlier, it represented Peugot. In Germany, Sachs has a distribution network of roughly 1,200 dealers. They import ATVs, or quads, from Asian scooter and manufacturer motorcycles. Sachs was the first company which brought an E-bike in reasonable amounts to the market in Germany. They have accumulated a large know-how in the technology of E-bikes and electric power assisted Pedelecs. Sachs FMT has been producing 125, 650 and 800cc motorcycles in small amounts. Their MadAss 50cc and 125cc are well known because of their very attractive design. (GE)