Is Textron selling Arctic Cat to John Deere?

[earthling]

It depends on what they are buying. We had this discussion in other forums, and that matters most. And it's possibly not the sleds themselves.

If you buy Arctic Cat from Textron what would you get? A MFG facility in TRF, an engine building facility in St Cloud, the Sled line IP, and the dirt line IP. The human resources (if they have not already found new employment) The dealer network and support chain (which is pretty much shuttered at this point)

For Argo, they have an excellent dirt line but no snow line, same for CFMoto
Argo has MFG facilities in MN already, CFMoto only had final assembly and distribution. With upcoming tariffs, this could have a huge play in CFMoto aquiring a US based facility to do more. (same for Honda back in the day for cars)
The dealer network was already getting infiltrated by CFMoto and Argo, so relationships may already be there. But there is no value on that portion of the purchase

Anyone buying Artic Cat is also buying debt and any outstanding obligations. Typically this is handled in the transaction or adjacent to it but it happens. The tariffs will affect all goods imported so they would be in the same situation they are in right now which is that final assembly will not have tariffs but the component parts that are imported will.

 

[biffdotorg]

Anyone buying Artic Cat is also buying debt and any outstanding obligations. Typically this is handled in the transaction or adjacent to it but it happens. The tariffs will affect all goods imported so they would be in the same situation they are in right now which is that final assembly will not have tariffs but the component parts that are imported will.

Exactly, so the more finished product they can purchase and assemble domestically will help with that cause. Thus the reason a Polaris product or AC product should have a slight advantage over the BRP's of the world in that respect.

 

[DennyTuna]

Sounds Like CF Moto has an agreement to purchase Arctic Cat. Time will tell, we shall see.

 

[KnappAttack]

Sounds Like CF Moto has an agreement to purchase Arctic Cat. Time will tell, we shall see.

Were does this information come from? I see nothing out there on the web stating that anywhere.

 

[Vmax]

I heard it on the Black Bird podcast

 

[biffdotorg]

I heard it on the Black Bird podcast

No, they are speculating from rumors. They have no official word, press release or anything. That podcast was a joke and 40 minutes of speculation from folks that don't even know anything about CFmoto. He admitted it in the first 5 minutes.

There is no official word on the street as of yet. Although the folks at Country Cat and a few other racing shops are a bit more on the positive side than I have ever seen since racing was shut down.

 

[earthling]

Exactly, so the more finished product they can purchase and assemble domestically will help with that cause. Thus the reason a Polaris product or AC product should have a slight advantage over the BRP's of the world in that respect.

Probably very slight as nobody builds completely from local materials. You can read this in the AC/Polaris marketing statements because they have to comply with FTC rules which carry stiff penalties. They make claims like 'majorly or primarily manufactured in the US' which means that there are dependencies on foreign sourced manufacturing suppliers. Since the application of the guidelines is self-administered, you can claim anything you want but have to be able to back it up if challenged. Bottom line however is that less competition is not a good thing. As companies struggle with market conditions, all prices will rise to keep the investors happy, no matter who the company is. Even if Polaris or AC were 100% locally manufactured, it would take an incredible amount of discipline to not raise prices if BRP for instance is forced to because of tariffs. Investors and the board are just not built that way.