Lamborghini not for sale after reported 7.5b euro bid: VW

Wolfsburg, Germany

VOLKSWAGEN (VW) has received a 7.5 billion euro (S$12.1 billion) offer for Lamborghini, British weekly magazine Autocar reported on Tuesday, though VW's Audi said the supercar brand was not for sale.

The non-binding offer sets out terms for the purchase of Automobili Lamborghini by Switzerland's Quantum Group AG, which has formed a consortium with London-based investment firm Centricus Asset Management, Autocar reported.

The report, citing offer documents, also said that the consortium would include job assurances for existing Lamborghini employees for up to five years and the creation of 850 new jobs.

Quantum Group founding partner Rea Stark is also co-founder of Piech Automobile with Toni Piech, the son of former Volkswagen Chairman Ferdinand Piech, according to its website.

The reported offer for Lamborghini comes amid uncertainty over whether VW will keep a sprawling structure that also includes brands such as Ducati, Audi, Porsche and Bugatti.

VW confirmed that there was agreement in the group that Lamborghini, which has been named repeatedly as a possible divestment candidate in the past, will remain part of VW.

Asked to comment on the Autocar report, a spokesman for VW unit Audi, which is in charge of Lamborghini, said: "This is not the subject of any discussion within the group. No, Lamborghini is not for sale."

Representatives of Centricus and Quantum Group were not immediately available for comment.

Sources told Reuters in October that VW had drawn up plans to carve out Lamborghini to make it a more independent business within its stable of car brands and facilitate a potential initial public offering (IPO) at a later stage.

Lamborghini chief executive officer Stephan Winkelmann last week said the brand planned to invest US$1.5 billion to produce an entirely gas-electric hybrid line-up by 2024, adding that its first fully electric model will not appear until the second half of the decade. REUTERS