Bertone May Be Headed for Sales Block
The design house has had problems controlling costs and getting paid from some of its Far East clients, and the lack of cash flow has forced it to hold back payment to some of its suppliers.
TURIN, Italy – In 1997, Lilli Bertone promised her husband, the late Nuccio Bertone, she would maintain control of the design company his father founded through its 100th anniversary, a pledge she kept with the launch of the Bertone Nuccio concept car at the Geneva auto show last year.
But it has been an expensive struggle to do so, and sources say pressure is mounting to throw in the towel and put the “Stile Bertone” operation in Caprie on the sales block.
Carrozzeria Bertone currently has a rich order backlog and in fact may have won more design contracts than it can handle. But the company appears more successful in its work than in managing its costs, and while a growing entity Bertone hardly is profitable.
In addition, the design house has had problems getting paid from some of its Far East clients, and the lack of cash flow has forced it to hold back payment to some of its suppliers for the past several months.
A Turin court recently ordered a new financial stress test for the family and its business, and that may force Lilli Bertone, 78, to put the company up for sale, just as rival designer Giorgetto Giugiaro did three years ago in turning over control of Italdesign to Volkswagen for what was believed to be a considerable sum.
Bertone might be an attractive purchase for one of the designer’s Chinese customers, including a rich and powerful First Auto Works. Another client closer to home, such as BMW, could swoop in to prevent the operation from falling into Chinese hands.
Lilli Bertone, and her daughter, Barbara Bertone, have been ordered to pay some €7.5 million ($9.8 million) to creditors, with Lilli Bertone to cover one-third of that and the remaining portion to be paid by her, her daughter or the two of them together.
Raising the money will be more difficult than it might have been a few years ago, because values of other properties held by the pair have fallen in the current weak European economy.
That’s heightening speculation here an outright sale of Bertone may be the only way out.
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