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VW has received several tentative bids for Ducati

Italy's Benetton family is vying with motorbike firms and buyout funds for control of Italian motorcycle brand Ducati, which is being sold by Germany's Volkswagen, sources involved in the process told Reuters. Volkswagen, whose Audi division controls Ducati, has received several tentative bids with the Benetton family's investment vehicle Edizione Holding valuing the Monster motorbike maker at $1.2 billion, one of the sources said. As well as Edizione Holding, U.S. buyout fund Bain Capital, which owns a stake in Ski-Doo snowmobiles maker BRB, and two Indian motorbike firms, Eicher Motors and Bajaj Auto, have also bid for Ducati, the sources said. Indian carmaker Eicher controls Royal Enfield, a motorcycle brand established in 1893 which ranks as one of the oldest. Strategic bidders also include U.S. automotive firm Polaris Industries, which earlier this year said it would wind down its struggling Victory Motorcycle brand. A shortlist of bidders for a second stage of the auction could be selected as soon as Saturday, two of the sources said. Volkswagen adviser Evercore has a long list of bidders including private equity funds such as Ducati's previous owner Investindustrial, CVC Capital Partners, Advent and PAI, all hoping to outbid industry players, the sources said. If it gets to the second round, Edizione Holding could seek to form a consortium with a financial investor, two of the sources said, in a bid to secure control of Ducati, whose racers have won the Superbike world championship 14 times, with Carl Fogarty and Troy Bayliss its most successful riders. Audi, Edizione Holding, Investindustrial, Advent and PAI declined to comment, while the other interested groups were not immediately available for comment. PRICING CHALLENGES For some buyout funds, Ducati's valuation of up to $1.4 billion – which sources said is based on a multiple of more than 10 times its core earnings of roughly 100 million euros – is a tall order as they lack the synergies that some motorbike makers could achieve. But Investindustrial founder Andrea Bonomi, who sold Ducati to Audi for about 860 million euros in 2012, is serious about a comeback, one of the sources said. China's Loncin Motor was among a group of industry players that initially showed interest in Ducati, alongside Harley-Davidson. The latter has, however, decided against making a bid due to Ducati's price tag, while it could not be established if Loncin Motor had carried on bidding.

Lamborghini Aventador reports for taxi duty at Bologna airport

Lamborghini has invaded another airport as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations. In January, it took over one of the two runways at Miami-Dade International Airport so it could conduct high-speed runs and have an Aventador pose with a Boeing airliner. Across the Atlantic, the Aventador has just been made the "Follow Me" vehicle at the Aeroporto di Bologna, which is 30 minutes from the company factory in Sant' Agata Bolognese.
According to Auto Evolution, it's been done up just like the Fiat models one normally encounters on such duty - it even has a light bar in case pilots don't simply want to follow the noise. Specially trained airport staff will guide arriving flights to their gates in the Aventador from May 6 to May 19, and once passengers are deplaned, they can check out the Lamborghini exhibit inside the airport.

Lamborghini confirms Veneno Roadster is coming

As it turns out, there might just be more than three lucky souls on the planet who will be able to claim ownership of a Lamborghini Veneno. While Lamborghini still plans to make triplets out of the winged and vented hypercar, we hear that there is a Veneno Roadster in the works.
Early yesterday, our own Matt Davis caught wind of an open-top Veneno, but Car and Driver has some more details about the car. The article says that a total of nine Veneno Roadsters could be built with each carrying a price tag of around $4.4 million US. If you're keeping track at home, that's a premium of a cool half-million bucks to get the Veneno to go topless, and with all three of the coupes already accounted for, we're sure Lamborghini won't have a hard time unloading the Roadsters.
There is no additional information about the Lamborghini Veneno Roadster, but if we had to guess, we'd figure it will likely use some lightweight removable roof panels like the Aventador Roadster.