By now, you've probably heard the news that Dainese just got sold. Again. And that maybe, just maybe, the purchase price was an astonishing €1, which is about US $1.15 at the time of writing. And maybe you've thought to yourself, "That can't possibly be right. What's going on here?"
As usual, there's a bunch more to this story than just the admittedly very sensational headline that one of the world's premier high-end motorcycle gear manufacturers (and let's not forget, they also make skiing and equestrian gear, too) was sold for the kind of minuscule amount you might even have in your pocket right now.
You may recall that private equity firm the Carlyle Group first purchased the Dainese group back in 2022. Prior to that sale, Dainese had been a private, family-owned company. Under the terms of that deal, Dainese founder Lino Dainese would keep a small amount of equity in the Group, but would no longer own it outright. Incidentally, for motorcycle folks, the Dainese Group also includes bootmaker TCX and helmet maker AGV, and not only the Dainese brand.
When Carlyle first arranged the purchase of the Dainese in 2022, it didn't simply shell out the cash from a Scrooge McDuck-style vault, sign paperwork, shake hands, maybe take a photo, and call it a day.
Instead, the firm went to two private credit firms to largely finance the purchase. Who were these firms? HPS Investment Partners and Arcmont Asset Management, both based in London. Incidentally, HPS was literally just acquired by a globally (in)famous wealth management firm you may have heard of at the beginning of July: BlackRock. That deal went through less than a month before the Dainese deal we're going to talk about in a minute, though presumably the Dainese discussion had already been going on for some time before it was finalized.
How much money are we talking about? A cool €260m in total (around US 300,254,500 at the time of writing). In late July 2025, according to Bloomberg, the two put their ledgers together and issued a further €25m on top of the to help keep Dainese stable as discussions of an imminent purchase from Carlyle continued.
For Dainese's part, it notes that this debt will come due (in the form of private notes) in 2028, which is the same time the previous €260m will also come due.
If you're keeping track of the math here, that's at least €285m that the Dainese Group (not Carlyle Group; that's not how private equity works, remember) now owes to its two main creditors, due in 2028 unless something substantially changes between now and then.
That's over and above the financial losses it's been taking since sales of the actual products it makes— and which the company made its name on all around the world—haven't been great the past few years.
But back to the €1 euro deal, which Il Messagero reported as being near completion on July 17, 2025. That €1 is largely symbolic, since Carlyle would effectively be doing something that it's been known to do in the past: Selling an ailing company back to its creditors in what's known as a debt/equity swap.
This strategy isn't just a Carlyle thing, although in 2023, Bloomberg News tracking noted that Carlyle Group was one of the top such firms to have engaged in debt/equity swaps that year (tied for the top prize with BC Partners and KKR Special Situations).
What is a debt/equity swap? Let's say a company is in a bad financial situation, and it's going to have to restructure in some way or another. If major creditors think that they can turn it around and bring it back to profitability again, they might agree to cancel some (or all) of the company's debt in exchange for significant (or even total) equity in the ailing company.
Why Do This Now, In Particular?
Interest rates, as your eyes may glaze over every time you hear about them on the news, have been rising. Perhaps one of the only ways in which a PE firm is like regular people (hear me out) is in that it doesn't want to pay more money than it has to.
So, with interest rates on the rise, it might take a more critical look at whether it wants to continue to shell out to maintain whatever its current portfolio of companies it has equity in is, or whether it wants to see about selling off some of them.
Dainese's at a Crossroads
It's been a tough year for many in the powersports industry, and a tough few years for some—including, unfortunately, Dainese. Its losses in 2024 were €120 million (around US $138,591,000). Il Messagero reports that in the short term, it doesn't expect this deal to immediately impact Dainese's daily operations, or its employees, customers or others you might expect.
But Dainese hasn't said that, and other outlets haven't reported that, either. It's unclear why that outlet feels this way, because we've seen how situations like these play out in the past. That's across industries, too; the niche and company names might change, but the playbook is largely the same.
Will Dainese Group, as you, I, and other motorcycle enthusiasts around the world know it, survive? If it does, it will likely have to change significantly, and it's unclear at this point exactly what the future holds. I've got some Dainese gear in my closet, and I'm sure you do, too. Hug it tight and tell it you love it, and spare a thought for the firm's employees over what's undoubtedly a tense time.
