Will Lamborghini be sold again? | Axon’s Automotive Anorak

After weeks speculation and uncertainty, Volkswagen quashed the rumours and quietly removed any evidence of ‘for sale’ signs being erected outside of its Crewe, Molsheim and Sant’Agata exclusive car plants.

Having gathered its collective Group thoughts and finally confirming officially that none of VW’s esteemed prestige brands were up for sale, in the closing days of May 2021 came the (not totally unexpected) news that the Audi-controlled Lamborghini supercar maker was potentially going to be sold off…

This news of Lamborghini’s possible disposal was delivered with a degree of Dominic Cummins-esque confusion, uncertainty and denial, with the Volkswagen Group claiming that its Italian supercar division was not up for grabs, but the Anglo-Swiss Quantum Group saying that it was bidding around 7.5 billion euros (£6.4billion) to buy Lamborghini from VW’s Audi division. 

Established by Rea Stark (also a co-founder of the Swiss Piech Automobile electric sportscar company), along with Toni Piech (a son of former Volkswagen Chairman, Ferdinand Piech), the Quantum Group is reportedly keen to create a ‘luxury multi-brand platform’ with Lamborghini at the heart of Quantum’s investment vision.

As with numerous rival prestige and luxury performance car manufacturers, however (Italian or otherwise), a frequent change of ownership is nothing uncommon for Lamborghini, the company acquiring new custodians almost as often as a change of Italian prime ministers, and that's saying something!

Since its founding by wealthy Italian tractor maker Ferruccio Lamborghini in 1963, his eponymous Automobili Ferruccio Lamborghini S.p.A. grew rapidly during its first decade of trading, thanks to seminal exotic models such as the pioneering mid-engined Miura and rapid Espada luxury 2+2 GT. Within just ten years though, Lamborghini demand and production had declined considerably in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis, causing Ferruccio to sell the sportscar company he had established to Georges-Henri Rossetti and René Leimer in 1974, and then retire.

The Sant’Agata's firm’s ownership changed quickly a further three times, including a bankruptcy in 1978, with Lamborghini even taking on a Fiat sub-assembly contract for the Brazilian-sourced 127 Rustica derivative in 1979 to help keep the business afloat and workers employed! Lamborghini was placed in the receivership of brothers Patrick and Jean-Claude Mimran in 1980, with the Swiss siblings buying the company out of receivership by 1984 and investing heavily in its expansion. Under their management, Lamborghini's model range was enlarged from just the Countach to include the Urraco-derived Jalpa mid-engined Targa junior ‘exotica,’ plus the unique LM002 high-performance ‘SUV’ off-roader.

By 1987 the once giant American motoring corporation, Chrysler (now part of FCA and the newly-formed Stellantis automotive group), had taken over control of Lamborghini from the Mimran brothers, presenting the arresting Lambo-powered four-scissor-doored Chrysler Portofino concept car at the 1987 IAA Frankfurt Motor Show as a strong statement of intent.

By 1994 though, cash-starved Chrysler had sold Lamborghini on to the Malaysian investment group Mycom Setdco and the Indonesian V'Power Corporation. In turn, Mycom Setdco and V'Power moved Lamborghini on to the Volkswagen Group in 1998, where the revered Italian marque was placed under the control of the Group's Audi division, as it remains today (for the moment, at least!), and has thrived during this lucrative era with investment in many new models and exposure to new markets to deliver record sales in the company’s near-60-year history of complex multi-ownership.

Somewhat inevitably, Lamborghini isn’t alone in having a fragmented history of owners, with its near Modena neighbour Maserati also sharing an equally convoluted span of proprietors over its much longer existence.

First founded by a quintet of gifted Maserati brothers in December 1914 to build and maintain competition cars for local sportscar maker Diatto, Maserati built its first eponymous car in 1926, following Diatto’s withdrawal from motor racing.

The Maserati brothers successfully developed their cars and business, until selling their majority shareholding on to the wealthy Adolfo Orsi and his family in 1937, whilst retaining an interest in engineering the latest Maserati-branded competition cars under a ten-year contract. Once this agreement had expired, in 1947 the four surviving Maserati brothers established O.S.C.A. in Bologna as a specialist sportscar maker, this small company ceasing its activities in 1967.

With Adolfo Orsi remaining as nominal president, in 1968 he agreed to sell Maserati on to the innovative French mass vehicle producer Citroën, with the intention for the Italian firm to design and manufacture a suitable engine for Citroën's upcoming flagship GT model, launched as the remarkable Maserati V6-powered SM in 1970.

During its brief tenure (Citroën itself going bust and being taken over by former rival Peugeot in 1974 to form PSA, with Maserati being liquidated and then sold-off in late 1975), Citroen funded a number of important new Maserati models, including the mid-engined Bora and Merak, plus the front-engined Khamsin and short-lived SM-derived Quattroporte II.

Following Citroën’s collapse, it sold a minority stake in the now-liquidated Maserati on to Argentinian-born entrepreneur and fellow Modena-based exotic sportscar maker Alejandro De Tomaso in August 1975, with an Italian state-owned holding company, GEPI, taking the majority 88.75 per cent shareholding, along with De Tomaso acquiring Innocenti from the recently-failed British Leyland.

Under De Tomaso’s control, a radical new strategy saw Maserati gradually move production away from its ultra-exclusive and expensive supercar and GT models, and move into a more mainstream arena with its new 1981–94 Biturbo range, created to compete with top-end BMW 3 Series derivatives, for example.

In 1989 De Tomaso finally acquired Maserati’s remaining GEPI majority shareholding, quickly selling his stake in Innocenti to Fiat S.p.A.. This action ultimately led to Fiat saving Maserati from liquidation once again too, with De Tomaso selling his majority 51 per cent stake in the celebrated sportscar maker to the Turin motoring giant in May 1993.

Four years later, Fiat (which had already bought Ferrari from its famous founder Enzo in 1969) sold a 50 per cent share in Maserati to its former main Italian Modenese rival in 1997, with Ferrari taking full control in 1999, reassigning Maserati as its new luxury division.

In 2005 Maserati split away from the by-then fully independent Ferrari to rejoin the Fiat group, partnering under the newly-formed FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) heading with its Alfa Romeo division in 2010, with FCA now forming a key part of the monolithic new Stellantis motoring organisation, formed in early 2021 with the previous PSA combine. This recent move reunited Maserati with its former Citroën owners once more after almost half-a-century, as well as its previous Chrysler colleagues, following the disastrous Chrysler-Maserati TC two-seater roadster model of 1989-90.

Of course, complex and confusing ownership histories aren’t only exclusive to exotic Italian sportscar makers though, as the often baffling and bewildering array of past proprietors of other specialist marques, such as Britain’s Lotus Cars, Jaguar Daimler and Bentley, for example, testifies, but I think I’ll save those equally complex ownership tales for another day…