Volkswagen scandal might force it to sell luxury brands
Bentley, Lamborghini and Ducati could be on the chopping block.
The Volkswagen saga continues, as the company deals with the aftermath of its emissions scandal. According to Reuters, the German automaker has secured a loan of roughly 20 billion euros in order to pay for resulting lawsuits and to compensate consumers whose cars are now worth less following the admission. However, there's a catch. In order to assure that it can pay back the loan, Volkswagen had to confirm that it's prepared to sell off some of its smaller holdings including Bentley, Lamborghini and Ducati.
As Road and Track notes, these are considered to be the automaker's smaller investments because the cars and motorbikes are made in limited quantity and only serve a specific market. Another alternative is that Volkswagen can sell its holdings in MAN, a supplier of ship engines, generators and heavy-duty industrial components. Even so, it has been estimated that the automaker might owe upwards of 78 billion euros in assorted damages, so selling the abovementioned could just be a drop in the ocean of financial debt.
[Image credit: Miles Willis/Bloomberg/Getty Images]
