Recently, Pierer Mobility AG, a well-known Austrian company, announced a major strategic shift to exit the bicycle and electric bicycle business and focus on restructuring to cope with the current huge financial losses.
It is reported that Pierer Mobility's preliminary financial report released on April 28 showed that the sales of electric bicycles and bicycles in 2024 fell sharply, from 155,859 units in the previous year to 106,311 units, a drop of 32%, partly due to the sale of the R Raymon brand. In order to optimize resource allocation, the company will liquidate the remaining Husqvarna and GasGas electric bicycle inventory and re-evaluate its strategic choice of 70% stake in Felt Bicycles.
As it exits the bicycle business, Pierer Mobility is facing increasing financial pressure. In 2024, the company had a net loss of 1.888 billion euros, and its revenue fell nearly 30% year-on-year to 1.879 billion euros. As of December 31, 2024, the company also faced a severe situation of negative assets of 199 million euros and net debt of 1.64 billion euros.
In fact, Pierer Mobility's difficulties are not limited to the bicycle business. The company, which owns well-known motorcycle brands such as KTM and Husqvarna Motorcycles, is also undergoing a restructuring. The company has begun to gradually restart its motorcycle production lines in March 2025, thanks to a 150 million euro cash injection from its Indian partner Bajaj Auto, and all four production lines are expected to resume operations in the summer of 2025. In the future, it will seek about 600 million euros in financing to decide whether it can continue to operate under the going concern assumption or whether it needs to adopt liquidation accounting for insolvent subsidiaries including KTM AG.
The company reported motorcycle sales of 292,497 units in 2024, down from 372,511 units in 2023, and cut production to about 230,000 units to manage global inventory. From the beginning of 2024 to March 2025, the company has laid off more than 1,850 people, and it expects the number of employees to decrease further after its planned sale of its stake in MV Agusta.
Despite the bleak outlook, Pierer noted that completing the restructuring could generate restructuring proceeds of 1.3 billion euros, significantly improving the company's equity position.
