Cosworth up For Sale… IPO Forgone
World-renowned performance engineering firm Cosworth is up for sale in light of the unstable stock market.
Joint-owners Gerry Forsythe and Kevin Kalkhoven, who bought the company from Ford eight years ago, are behind the move. The brand had plans for an initial public offering 18 months ago, but the brand’s board is tired of waiting.
“We have been paused for the last 18 months and the board has decided that we can not wait any longer otherwise we risk losing momentum,” Cosworth CEO Tim Routsis told The Times.
In recent years, Cosworth has diversified, and now produces parts and projects for the aerospace, automotive and defense industries. That makes the company attractive to a larger variety of buyers, with Rolls-Royce rumored to be at the top of the list.
Cosworth has a long list of achievements including 176 F1 wins from cars using its engines, and 20 consecutive Indy 500 wins from cars using the brand’s electronics. In 2006, the company lost its contract to build engines for F1, forcing the move into aerospace and defense. The company has since re-established its F1 presence and currently supplies engines to HRT and Marussia.
Cosworth was recently in the news for building engines that will go into Hyundai cars which will be show off at the 2012 SEMA show.
[Source: The Telegraph]
Stephen covers all of the day-to-day events of the industry as the News Editor at AutoGuide, along with being the AG truck expert. His truck knowledge comes from working long days on the woodlot with pickups and driving straight trucks professionally. When not at his desk, Steve can be found playing his bass or riding his snowmobile or Sea-Doo. Find Stephen on <A title="@Selmer07 on Twitter" href="http://www.twitter.com/selmer07">Twitter</A> and <A title="Stephen on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/117833131531784822251?rel=author">Google+</A>
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