Pininfarina family stake to be sold - Tata potential suitor

Pincar, the company owned by the Pininfarina family may sell its majority stake in troubled design house and coachbuilder Pininfarina. Through Pincar the family holds a majority stake of 50.7%. Selling the piece is a decision taken at a board meeting last week and was part of a debt agreement made with the banks in 2008. The end result would be that Pincar would no longer be the majority owner but at the same time the family would not leave the business completely.


A number of well-known industry names have been touted as possible new partners. One of them is Tata which owns the Tata Motors, Jaguar and Land Rover brands. The Indian company has an existing alliance with Fiat and was mentioned as an investor last year. Being closely related to Pininfarina, a company that has designed some of the most striking Ferraris and Maseratis in the past would certainly give Tata a boost in its design department.


Another possible partner is said to be Bolloré, the French industrial company. Pininfarina is working with them to develop an electric car dubbed, Bluecar. In 2008 founder Vincent Bolloré expressed an interest in becoming one of the shareholders at Pininfarina.


Could Ford also be in the mix? The Italian brand builds the Focus Coupe Cabriolet for the blue oval while another agreement sees it producing the Volvo C70 at a plant in Uddevalla, Sweden.
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Pininfarina Family Hires Bank To Sell 50.7% Stake In Design Firm

Reportedly, the family owners of Pininfarina have already engaged the services of an Italian bank to sell their 50.7% stake held by Pincar, the Pininfarina family's company. The news highlights the difficulty that luxury coachbuilders are facing from the financial crisis and the resulting drop in demand for their services and products, a situation that has had rival Italian coachbuilder Bertone on the back foot for some time now.


It seems Pininfarina's best chances for survival would come from having a group of investors, rather than a single controlling company, considering that if a large enough stake in Pininfarina was acquired by a rival company some of its contracts with auto manufacturers could be put at risk.


Despite seeking to sell off their majority stake in the company, an anonymous source within the Pininfarina company revealed to Reuters that the family had "no intention of leaving completely", and the sale was a measure taken to comply with previously agreed upon debt stipulations with banks last year.


With over half the company expected to go up for sale, speculation is rife as to who could step in to purchase Pininfarina. Last year we reported that Piero Ferrari, Enzo Ferrari's second son, Alberto Bombassei, chairman of Brembo, and the Marsiaj family, founders of the Sabelt seatbelt company have all considered investing in Pininfarina, along with Vincent Bollore, a French financier, and Ratan Tata, head of India's Tata conglomerate, who already announced its plans to invest.
Source:motorauthority

The Golden Ferrari! Pininfarina

The New Pininfarina project dubbed the "Golden Ferrari". Apparently based on the 599 GTB, the car seems to have received inspiration from the Ferrari 330 LMB featured in the short film "Toby Dammit".


He made for us the following photos of a special new Ferrari, which was not yet running. On the plate is "The Golden Ferrari" in reading, the Pininfarina logo below. The whole suggests that this is a piece of coach building is, according to insiders, a one-off. We wrote earlier that Ferrari is the coach building to new life would blow. They would also cooperate with partners such as Fioravanti (check), Zagato, Touring Superleggera, and of course Pininfarina.


The front is very similar to a 599, but towards the back forming the lines into something very different. The back is even very retro, in which the design appears almost equal to the golden Ferrari (the golden car) from the short film Toby Dammit, part of Spirits of the Dead. This Ferrari was based on a 330LMB (with 4-liter V12) and was using Fiorenzo Fantuzzi a new body. Pininfarina has apparently want to make a remake of this classic. Check the gallery for more pictures!


Source: autoblog