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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