Italian billionaire John Elkann to sell $1.2bn Iveco stake to Tata Motors

Italian billionaire John Elkann is taking the Agnelli family out of trucks, committing Exor's 27.06 percent of Iveco to Tata Motors' tender offer in a sale worth about $1.2 billion.

Tata opened the all-cash offer on Monday at $16.41 (€14.10) a share, valuing Iveco at about $4.4 billion, after Italian regulator Consob approved the offer document. Acceptances run to Oct. 26, with a possible five-day extension to Nov. 6. Exor has given an irrevocable undertaking to tender and to vote for the resolutions at an extraordinary general meeting on Oct. 16.

Elkann, who is chief executive of Exor and chairman of Stellantis and Ferrari, ranks 1,676th on Forbes' 2026 billionaires list.

Giving up more than the shares

Exor's economic stake is 27.06 percent but it controls 43.19 percent of Iveco's voting rights through special voting shares. On settlement, it hands those shares back to Iveco for no consideration.

That is the mechanism through which the Agnellis have controlled a Turin industrial asset with barely a quarter of its equity, and Elkann is dismantling it rather than selling it. Iveco board members holding about 0.14 percent have also agreed to tender.

The offer requires 95 percent acceptance, falling automatically to 80 percent if shareholders pass the Back-End Resolution at the October meeting. Above 95 percent, Tata proceeds to a Dutch legal squeeze-out. Between 80 and 95, it intends a post-offer demerger and liquidation. Tata is funding the cash through about $4.45 billion of committed bridge financing from Morgan Stanley and MUFG. Goldman Sachs advises Iveco.

What Elkann keeps

Exor retains about 14.2 percent of Stellantis, its Ferrari holding, Juventus, The Economist and GEDI, the publisher of La Repubblica and La Stampa. The exit is from commercial vehicles specifically, not from automotive.

Iveco's defence businesses, IDV and ASTRA, were transferred to Leonardo in a separate transaction worth about $1.98 billion before this offer. Tata is buying the remaining truck, bus, powertrain and financial services operations.

The African consequence

Tata says it has sold more than 340,000 commercial vehicles across sub-Saharan Africa and runs more than 320 sales and service locations, with assembly in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. Iveco separately sells vans, heavy trucks, buses and construction vehicles into African markets including South Africa, serving transport operators, mines, contractors, municipalities and emergency services.

The combination would produce annual sales above 590,000 vehicles and revenue near $24.4 billion, split roughly 46 percent Europe, 32 percent India, 8 percent South America and 14 percent elsewhere, including Africa and Asia.

Tata has committed to keeping Iveco's Turin headquarters and given two-year undertakings against closing major facilities or cutting jobs as a direct consequence of the takeover. Neither company has said how African factories, dealerships or brands would be combined, and it is not clear how far the two-year protections extend outside Europe.