With the end of April just behind us, we're deep in the midst of quarterly/annual report season from all your favorite OEMs. The way that KTM parent company Pierer Mobility's reporting calendar works, it would usually have assembled its FY2024 annual report and released it by the end of April. But this year, that's not the case.
Why? For 2025, Pierer says that it's postponing publication of the report as it finalizes financing and restructuring plans. As of April 28, 2025, those details have not yet been satisfactorily concluded. As to why this has a bearing on the FY2024 report, I'll quote Pierer's official explanation here.
The positive conclusion of the investor process is, among other things, a prerequisite for the reorganization of KTM AG and thus for the continued existence of the Group. The main outstanding accounting issue is the confirmation of the going concern assumption. [Emphasis mine.]
The binding financing commitments of the investors from this process are a prerequisite for accounting at going concern values and the corresponding confirmation of the annual financial report. If the investor process fails, which the Executive Board does not currently expect, the company would have to recognize liquidation values in the absence of a positive going concern forecast and prepare a new annual financial report for 2024.
Instead, as long as it's able to satisfactorily resolve these outstanding issues, Pierer Mobility says that it "is endeavoring to publish the 2024 annual financial report by May 30, 2025."
That Doesn't Stop Preliminary Figures, Though
In lieu of a full, complete 2024 annual report, Pierer has instead published some preliminary figures and information. It cautions that these numbers rest on an assumption that financing and reorganization of the KTM Group can go through in time. If not, it cautions, these numbers may have an even more negative impact.
Which is kind of saying something, since Pierer Mobility's preliminary estimates state that sales were down by about 29% for FY2024, dropping from € 2.7 billion in 2023 to € 1.9 billion in 2024. Net debt is reportedly €1.643 billion, while equity is also negative, at €-199 million.
Financials weren't the only negative mentioned in this preliminary report, though. The company notes that it trimmed 874 employees from its rolls in 2024, and also that it laid off another 750 employees from January through March 2025.
Motorcycle sales in 2024 were 292,497 units, with 60,000 of those sold by Bajaj alone. Following all the cumulative events of the past couple of years, Pierer Mobility also notes that it will completely pull out of its bicycle businesses in the 2025 financial year. Husqvarna and GasGas e-bikes will be sold, and it will not continue with what's most commonly associated with the word "Mobility" in a given company's name.
What does 2025 have in store?
Given the current global economic uncertainty, on top of Pierer's own struggles, you might expect the Group to say that it can't give 2025 guidance, or even that it's pulling any previous fiscal guidance that it may have offered in the recent past. Not so!
No, instead, Pierer Mobility states that, "Due to the difficult macroeconomic conditions, the ongoing reorganization process and the gradual ramp-up of production, a negative operating result (before restructuring profit) is also expected for the 2025 financial year."
Wait, restructuring profit? Yes, that's another thing Pierer brings up in this preliminary reporting document. Should the restructuring plan quota of 30% be met, with around € 600 million paid to the restructuring administrator by the deadline of May 23, 2025, an approximate € 1.3 billion restructuring profit is expected. Thus, Pierer says, if this happens, it will have a "high three-digit million range" positive equity figure once more.
We don't know what's going to happen, or how this is all going to pan out. But since it's May 1, 2025 as I'm writing this, at least we have less than a month before we should know whether KTM as we know it will live or die. For the record, we're hoping it makes it. What about you?
