KUBOTA TO BUY WELL KNOWN MOWER BRAND

Kubota Corporation has announced their intention to merge the lawnmower business division of Italian manufacturer Officine BIEFFEBI (BFB) and its subsidiary Gianni Ferrari (GF) into a new wholly-owned subsidiary of Kubota Holdings B.V., Kubota’s European subsidiary for its agricultural industrial machinery business.

The company says the creation of this new subsidiary, which will be called Kubota Gianni Ferrari S.R.L., will expand their range of groundcare products, aimed at turf professionals. By integrating these new resources into its sales, production and development processes, Kubota Holdings Europe say they will speed up the expansion of this business line in Europe. 

Officine BIEFFEBI and Gianni Ferrari have a large market share in Europe for centre collect front mowers (CCFM), a segment of medium to large  professional mowers for which Kubota say demand has been growing steadily in recent years. In particular they say, both companies enjoy popularity in the UK, Italy, France and Germany, among other Western European countries.

In an official statement Kubota said even though their lawnmower division in Europe had been showing "solid growth in the professional and high-end consumer segment", the new company, Kubota Gianni Ferrari S.R.L., will have "even vaster capabilities to develop and manufacture lawn equipment in Europe, including the highly-demanded CCFM."

Kubota's CCFM segment will thus also receive a boost and will have the company's sales and dealer support network at its disposal. 

The closing of this transaction is subject to the completion of the condition precedents including the obtainment of the Golden Power clearance. (The Golden Power is the special power of the Italian government to limit or stop foreign direct investments and corporate transactions involving Italian strategic assets).