Italian businessman buys Pininfarina plant for aluminum-vehicle project

Defeated twice in his attempts to buy Carrozzeria Bertone S.p.A., Gianmario Rossignolo has signed a preliminary deal to rent and run one of Pininfarina S.p.A. three plants.

Rossignolo, 79, a flamboyant executive who worked at Fiat and Swedish ball-bearing maker SKF, needs the Pininfarina plant for its Innovation in Auto Industry S.p.A. (IAI) project.

The IAI business plan, which Rossignolo has been promoting the past four years, calls for building a three-model range of aluminum vehicles based on an innovative construction technology called Univis.

According to Rossignolo, Univis is a space-frame technology that requires just about 30 dies for building a vehicle.

IAI plans to build a crossover, a sedan and a coupe, with the first model scheduled to debut in 2011. The cars may wear the De Tomaso brand.

Founded in 1959 in Modena, Italy, by former Argentinean racing driver Alejandro De Tomaso, De Tomaso Automobili Modena S.p.A. was liquidated in 2004. The brand is for sale at the Modena bankruptcy court.

In December 2007, Rossignolo was ready to buy Carrozzeria Bertone to build IAI cars. But a last-minute bid by the Keplero consortium shut out Rossignolo.

The Keplero deal was not completed. In July, a Turin bankruptcy court chose Fiat Group Automobiles S.p.A.'s offer for Bertone, another defeat for Rossignolo.

In a complex, three-way deal, FinPiemonte Partecipazioni S.p.A., a financial holding owned by the Piedmont Region, agreed to buy the Pininfarina plant in Grugliasco, Italy, which houses body-in-white construction and a paint shop.

FinPiemonte will pay Pininfarina $22.3 million (15 million euros) for the Grugliasco property and rent it to Rossignolo's IAI for $966,000 (650,000 euros) a year for six years.

Separately, Rossignolo agreed to pay Pininfarina $3 million (2 million euros) for the tooling and contracts of the 900 workers of Grugliasco.

After completion of the two transactions, expected to happen by the end of this year, IAI will supply to Pininfarina "at cost" the painted bodies of the Alfa Romeo Brera and Spider and the Ford Focus Coupe Cabriolet.

Pininfarina will continue the final assembly of the Alfa models in its San Giorgio Canavese, Italy, plant, while the Ford models are completed in the Bairo Canavese, Italy, plant.

Production of the Alfa and Ford models is planned to end in spring 2011, when Rossignolo said he will begin building the first of his IAI models in Grugliasco, a crossover.

Rossignolo said IAI plans to invest $178.4 million (120 million euros) to build 3,000 units a year each of its three models.

If the transaction is completed, Pininfarina's workforce will decline from 1,699 people at the end of 2008 to about 800 people, mainly employed in its research and development center in Cambiano, Italy.

Pininfarina's wind tunnel, based in a dedicated building within the Grugliasco complex, is not part of the transaction, Pininfarina said.

The deal is part of debt-laden Pininfarina's efforts to downsize and focus its business on design, engineering and producing more environmentally friendly technologies, including electric cars.

This is Rossignolo's second attempt at reviving a defunct Italian brand. About 15 years ago, he started a project to revive Isotta Fraschini. An Audi-based Isotta Fraschini T8 was unveiled at the 2006 Geneva show, but it never entered production.

By Luca Ciferri- Automotive News Europe