The Volkswagen Group looks set to sell off its stake in Bugatti, ending its 28 year association with the marque it revived in 1998.
Over the weekend, Porsche — in which Volkswagen has a 75 per cent stake — announced it will sell off its stakes in Bugatti Rimac and Rimac to a group of venture capital firms led by New York-based HOF Capital and Abu Dhabi-based BlueFive Capital.
The sale is expected to completed by the end of the year, once all regulatory checks have been cleared. None of the parties have revealed the sale price.
In a statement, Michael Leiters, Porsche’s CEO, said it has “laid the foundation for Bugatti’s future” and thanks to its early investment in Rimac was able to make a “significant contribution to developing Rimac Technology into an established Tier-1 automotive technology company”. He went on to say with the sale “we will focus Porsche on the core business”.
Under the leadership of Ferdinand Piëch, the Volkswagen Group bought the rights to the Bugatti name and brand from Italian businessman Romano Artioli.
Bugatti moved its headquarters to Molsheim, France, and launched the critically acclaimed Veyron EB 16.4 in 2005, which was powered by a 736kW (1000hp) 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16 engine.
After news of the Dieselgate emissions cheating scandal emerged in late 2015, not only was the Volkswagen Group was forced to spend at least €31 billion in fines, compensation, and buy back costs, but the automaker pivoted from “clean diesel” to electric vehicles.
To compensate for the massive investment in EV development and Dieselgate costs, jobs were lost, budgets slashed, and rumours began to circulate about Bugatti’s future.
In a complex deal completed in 2021, the Bugatti and Rimac brands were placed in a holding company known as Bugatti Rimac, of which 55 per cent was owned by the Rimac Group, headed by founder Mate Rimac, and the rest by Porsche.
In turn, Porsche upped its stake in the Rimac Group to 24 per cent, putting it ahead of Hyundai (12 per cent) but behind Mate Rimac (37 per cent) in the shareholder leaderboard.
Bugatti and Rimac continue to function as separate brands with their own management, even though Mate Rimac is CEO of Bugatti Rimac, the Rimac Group, and Rimac Technology.