Norton Motorcycles, one of the UK’s most highly regarded brands went into bankruptcy late last year. The development also uncovered a number of anomalies with regards to how the company’s finances were spent. Its former CEO, Stuart Garner, is currently under investigation for investing private pensions into the failing company.
Over the course of the past couple of months, the financial institution tasked to handle the firm’s bankruptcy has been slowly uncovering new and dubious ways its ex-CEO had struggled to return the bikemaker to profitability.
Thankfully, because the Norton brand carries a great amount of heritage and name recall, particularly to British riders, its demise seems far from over. Just recently, TVS Motor Co. of India has expressed interest in acquiring the Norton Motorcycles brand.
TVS is a big player in the Indian motorcycle market with presence in a number of Asian countries, including the Philippines. It specializes in small scooters and small to medium sport bikes. In addition, the firm has also made engines for BMW’s small displacement motorcycles.
Acquiring Norton would give TVS its own premium brand to move up into the higher-end market, and expand to more markets globally. Of course, If TVS were to acquire Norton, it would have to settle its outstanding debt of UK£30 million to its investors. That could be relatively easy for the company that is estimated to be worth US$1.7 billion.
