Ducati CEO Federico Minoli, Ben Bostrom and, yes, Ben's dog photographed while hanging out at Daytona. image by dean adams

Q. Some are worried about Ducati—the future of the company, and maybe even the Italian motorcycle industry as a whole. Your thoughts?

A. Well, first of all, I think that Italy has a problem as a country. The industrial side of Italy right now is the problem, and motorcycles in particular. And I think that, frankly, Ducati is better off than the other Italian companies. We needed a capital increase that we have been working on for the past year. The reason we needed a capital increase is that the cost of developing new products has become so high, because the bar is now so high, particularly in the Superbike area, that we needed to have some fresh capital to do that. TPG, that has finished the fund that we belonged, did not have the capital to give to us. And so we engineered this sale of the company to Investindustrial, which was completed last week.

Investindustrial has bought the controlling stake of the company, and now is going to proceed with a capital increase of about $100,000,000, that's €80,000,000, which they will underwrite 30%. The remaining 70% has been guaranteed by a pool of banks. So the company will cash in $100,000,000, effectively. And that is really going, together with the regular debt, to give us the resources to continue to work on product development and do what we need to do.

Q. Is there €40,000,000 for development?

A. This year, we are spending a record €38,000,000, which is clearly not sustainable on a yearly basis for us. I think the right number for us will be €30,000,000 a year, and we have the resources to support that. I thought that we need to - and the new owners want to show that there is an acceleration of product development, and so that's why 2006 will be a big spending year for us. But in the results of 2005, which were poor, were apt to be looked at, because they were nothing to be excited from an operational point of view, of course, because we lost about €10,000,000 operationally. But then, we put in a big reserve for a strategic change that goes more toward high-performance and high-end motorcycles, and therefore we put in a big reserve of about €30,000,000, that is what determined the bad result of 2005. We lost like €40,000,000 in 2005. Ten was from operations, which we are not proud of, but the additional 30 is a known cash item that is a reserve to allow us to kind of implement this strategic change.

Q. Ducatis sell well in the United States, or have in the last year, but they don't sell very well in Europe.

A. Well, it's - again, it's really hard to generalize. Ducatis sell extremely well in the United States in the last two years. We did +28% last year. The first two months of this year, we are up 50-60%. In Europe, we are doing extremely well in Spain and Greece. Spain is 30%+ and Greece the same. We turned around Germany and France, so this year - actually, since last August.

"While the 999 was very forward and innovative and a kind of discontinuity with the past, it's hard to improve Michelangelo's Pieta, after all."

The issue, the big problem, is Italy, which is the largest market, and Germany. Now in Germany is a general economic issue, and it's picking up with the economy changing, and I think that Italy is still an economic issue that is not going away, and that we do not expect to go away, that has affected us, that has affected everybody else. If you look at the Italian manufacturers, Aprilia has almost disappeared in terms of registrations. MV is no longer there. And we are down about 12%, which of course we don't like it. Our overall worldwide registrations for 2005, which was a bad year, are down about 3.5%. So we are not happy, but it's not a disaster.

Q. Do you think it's fair to say that the 999 is at the end of its life, or nearing it?

A. Well, we declared the death of the 998 too early. We clearly don't want to declare another one dead too early. But it has been on the market for quite a while now.

It's a divisive bike. Somebody liked it very much, somebody did not like it very much. And so, of course, we are looking at a substitute. But when and how, we still don't know. But I think that the new one will be more in the sign of tradition of Ducati. While the 999 was very forward and innovative and a kind of discontinuity with the past, it's hard to improve Michelangelo's Pieta, after all. And so I think that our decision which, with hindsight, maybe was not right, was to really go off the beaten track and try something very novelty. I think that we will try to go back to less angle and more round and stuff like that. But it still is a work in process, and we'll see what happens there.

Q. Your future with the company?

A. That has to be asked to the shareholders. I had no sign that they want to change management, but we really have not—this thing just happened two weeks ago. I had quite a lot of fun at Ducati. I would like to go away on a more positive note, and with more, perhaps, than what I'm making today. But you never know. I think that you don't stay at Ducati for money. You stay at Ducati because it's a passion, it's love.

I tried already to go away in 2000 and it didn't work out. And I missed it when I was not there. So I think I could stay at Ducati until I retire, if it were up to me, but we'll have to see what they decide.

Q. This is the longest you've been at any company you've worked for, isn't it?

A. Absolutely yes. This is a company, you see, even with a rider - I was talking to Troy last week. He feels back home now. Ben pretty much the same, he's born again. We like this thing. I think we have a good group of people. We like to work together. We don't make much money. None of us, including the riders. But at least we feel home and we feel we're working toward a good cause.