Bajaj Eyes Approval For KTM Takeover By November | Rajiv Bajaj Exclusive | Motown Sentimeter

Thank you very much. Exactly in line with what you said, as you know our investment went in on 23rd of May and a series of approvals was required after that. As we stand, all the approvals that are to come on account of mergers and acquisitions are already in. Those that were to come in terms of foreign investment approvals I believe are also through. We are waiting now for the key approval of the takeover commission. We understand that this may be forthcoming in November. We hope it will be positive, which means that in that case, after an almost 18-year association in which Bajaj has been a minority partner, we would become a 76% shareholder in KTM AG, and well, in PIERER Mobility AG actually, and from being an observer we would take charge.

Well, you know, Parikhit, yeah, we were all taken by surprise, I must say. I think most of the industry was quite shocked at how rapidly this thing developed. And my mind goes back almost 30 years to what my first management guru Dr. John Wallace told me, which was simply this: that the single biggest reason for corporate demise is corporate greed. And I have really witnessed this play out at KTM unfortunately over the last 12 months in particular. I would say broadly three types of greed. First, operational greed, best exemplified by what happened in the last couple of years when KTM Austria kept producing and overproducing even though the spike of demand that had come about post-COVID had calmed down. And as we all know, with the result that KTM distributors and dealers worldwide were carrying over a year's worth of inventory, which was just preposterous frankly speaking. And then there was the, I would call it, strategic greed. Companies often get into businesses that they have no business getting into. In the case of KTM Austria, the best example of that that hurt them the most was getting into the bicycle business, specifically the electric bicycle business. When you have no synergy in any of your major operational areas such as R&D or supply chain or marketing, sales and distribution with such a business that may appear to be adjacent but actually has no synergy with your core business, then really it is irresponsible to venture into that space. I think this was the second greed, the strategic greed of getting into a new area that was actually not synergistic. And the two factors combined to take KTM to insolvency in a period of months. Now I know you might say that but Bajaj was part of it, and I would concede that yes we were also part of what went wrong, but I would only submit that as a minority partner we could not prevent this. And I can share with you today that we did our best to resist it, so much so that I think it led eventually to the third kind of greed, which if I may call it almost a governance greed, where certain decisions like this were either taken without our knowledge, without our information, and sometimes without even following due process. So we are quite shocked at what has been revealed to us over the last 12 months that we have got involved in this process. I must clarify we are not yet in charge, we don't have takeover permission yet, but as an observer, this is what we have come to understand. And if I might summarize it, leaning on the words of my other management guru Jack Trout, he would say the stock market can become the temple of greed. And I think this is what happened here. In the pursuit of valuations, some of these options were pursued that should not have been pursued. And when you link the stock market price to company performance and company performance to the remuneration of top management, this is how things can go horribly wrong.

Well, this is something that has happened over years. So from time to time whenever we were aware of some of these issues, if I were to enumerate all the minor and major issues we would be speaking for the next hour or two. We took it up, but as a minority partner there was only so much that we could do.

Oh yes absolutely. This is a problem that is not caused by 98% or 99% of the KTM employees. This is a problem of the top management of KTM, the top management of KTM. And that's why quite frankly most of them are gone. What we have now in place is a new team, a wonderful new team that I personally feel very confident about. The entire team is already in place barring just one vacancy that will be filled in the coming months. And it's a very nice combination I think of some of our older colleagues who are still very passionate about KTM, very committed to KTM in areas like product planning, R&D, legal department, etc., and then we have some wonderful outstanding new colleagues led by our CFO, new CFO, new CHRO, etc. So we have a great team in place. And I must make mention of the manner in which the Bajaj bench...