Malaguti in Italy looking for Investors

It's been a rumor I mentioned on the blog several times before. I sincerely love this brand. If I had the $20 million they need I would fly to Italy and put the deal together myself. The secretary of Emilia Romagna region in Bologna Fiom Bruno Papignan states in this interview "We are focusing our maximum attention on the Malaguti situation," clearly since its one of the major employers in the area.
http://bologna.repubblica.it/cronaca/2011/02/21/news/crisi_alla_malaguti_si_muove_la_provincia-12705700/

Several companies have expressed interest like Mahindra from India, CF MOTO, Kymco, Ducati, among others but from what I hear they are all waiting for the asking price to go down. Let's see what happens.

Back in 2003 when Italjet went bankrupt it was a major hit to the industry. They came back and are finally re-organizing, but its not the same as all the manufacturing jobs they had before. Nearby in Bergamo Polini basically makes everything in Taiwan now. La Perla underwear ( one of my favs ) also makes a ton of stuff in Asia now so it would only make sense for Malaguti to get an Asian partner.

In my opinion if they can't merge with their sister company Ducati or be forced to by the region then their design firm Engines Engineering should be the next logical step. It would only make sense for Mahindra to acquire them and consolidate themselves in Italy. It can either work perfectly or be a disaster the way the Benelli / QJ merger turned out to be at first. So let's see what happens.

I'm hoping for the best here because its a shame to have witnessed the slide of Italian manufacturing in the last ten years.