According to the following press release from MV Agusta, Claudio Castiglioni has signed a Letter of Intent with the CEO of Proton to initiate an undefined level of “cooperation” between the Malaysian car giant and the historic Italian motorcycle marque. MV Agusta is currently on the road to recovery after some serious financial problems which forced it into what the Italians call “Controlled Administration”, basically an equivalent of US Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, where the company’s operations are overseen by Banca Intesa, an Italian financial firm.
Considering that Proton is heavily involved with MotoGP racing through the Proton Team KR effort run by Kenny Roberts, speculation will surely arise about MV’s possible return to top-level GP racing. Although it seems unlikely that the Italian factory will be able to work with Team KR, it is possible that Proton could bankroll another team running a new Italian GP machine.
Here is the press release from MV Agusta in its entirety:
On the Way of MV Agusta relaunch
LETTER OF INTENT WITH PROTON GROUP
Varese, October 30, 2003. – Claudio Castiglioni’s, sole shareholder of MV Agusta Group, industrial and commercial mission in the Far East has concluded. On this occasion a meeting was set up with representatives of the government and of the industries of Malaysia. During the meetings they showed a remarkable interest for the technological, productive and sport heritage of the MV Agusta Group and of the important efforts made for the final relaunch of the activities.
Proton Group is leader in Malaysia in the field of automobile production and is particularly interested in the development of its own production in the motor field in Europe, where it already possesses the automobile trademark Lotus. During the meetings with Proton Group a remarkable concurrence of possibilities of cooperation between the Groups was noticed.
A Letter Of Intent has been undersigned by Claudio Castiglioni and Tengku Tan Sri Mahaleel Ariff, CEO of Proton Group, at the presence of Menteri Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysian Prime Minister, in order to examine closely a wide cooperation. It is well known, that MV Agusta is currently under Controlled Administration, and with the supervision of the Court of Varese and with the support of Banca Intesa, its production activities are completely recovering and gaining a remarkable success internationally for the models currently on the market.
During the conversations the idea of the participation of Proton has been preliminarly examined, through an increase in the share capital reserved for a consistent portion.
An agreement has been reached on the opportunity to accomplish in the shortest possible time all necessary close examinations: should these give positive results for both parties, the possible agreement will be screened and approved by the institutional and controlling bodies.
Claudio Castiglioni has declared: “I am really satisfied of the interest I have noticed for the effort we are making, also thanks to the help of Banca Intesa, to finally get out of the current situation and for a further relaunch of our activities. We are cheered by the recovery at full capacity of our activities and by the exceptional popularity shown on the markets with regard to our products and particularly with reference to our new Brutale model, MV F4 1.000S and the new Husqvarna models. I wish we will be able to reach an industrial and stock agreement giving more strength to our projects.”
