As Moto Morini marches closer to its April 13th auction date, a new potential buyer has come out of the woodwork for the troubled Italian company. Thomas Bleiner, an Austrian entrepreneur, has his eyes set on the Moto Morini facility with an interesting idea or two up his sleeve.
The proposal for the purchase is expected to be an interesting one, as Bleiner and his partner Gianni Farneda plan on making the dollar and cents of the deal work by installing a 1.1 megawatt photoelectric power system on the roof of the Bologna facility. Bleiner and Farneda have been heavily involved in the solar industry, developing a new photoelectric paint that uses nano technology.
Bleiner and his group believe they could have the factory up and running as early as June with at least eight employees returning to work. With the Granferro and Corsair lines seemingly to be ready to roll, Bleiner says the company could even make a November EICMA appearance. If this sounds a bit too good to be true, then perhaps it is, as Bleiner and his partners have yet to actually submit a bid to Moto Morini’s receiver, despite making the rounds to the Italian magazines and newspapers about their intent to purchase the brand.
The investor group seems keen on making its purchase before the April 13th auction date, saying that they want to avoid the speculation by bidders on the Moto Morini real estate. This is an interesting statement, since it seems that Bleiner and his group are primarily interested in the real estate, using it for their solar electricity production (presumably being sold to the Bologna community), while Moto Morini the motorcycle brand is a second priority.
It seems entirely possible that Beliner is using his car racing career and petrol-head interests in Moto Morini to drum up popular favor in his bid to purchase the company, casting a veil over his primary intention of instead working on photovoltaics at the facility. While of course any sort of production is perhaps better than no production, Moto Morini fans are likely hoping the company ends up in the hands of a group of investors who can make something of the Italian brand. As this does not seem to be the case, it only seems fair to call a spade a spade in this situation until more light can be cast on it.
Source: La Gazzetta Sportiva & Il Corriere di Bologna via MotoBlog.it
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