Minneapolis, MN (2/4/2010) -
Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE: PII) today
announced its acquisition of swissauto Powersports.
Based in Burgdorf, Switzerland, swissauto
has expertise in designing and developing
high-performance and high efficiencyengines
and innovative vehicles. The acquisition will
further strengthen Polaris' globalengine and
vehicle design capability while also enhancing
the company's European presence.
Founded in 1987, swissauto's core capabilities
are in development, prototyping and manufacturing
of internal combustion engines. Polaris has
a long history of working with swissauto.
The high-performance, four-stroke Weber engine
that Polaris uses in several current snowmobile
models was developed by swissauto.
In addition to recreational vehicle engines,
swissauto also has a strong tradition of developing
top-tier racing engines for World Motorcycle
GP. The company's V4 2-stroke 500 cc engine
drove 29 wins, 41 Poles and 3 World Championships
during the 1990s. A completely new racing
bike was also developed by swissauto and competed
aggressively against larger Japanese OEMs
during the late 1990s. This bike achieved
the pole position twice during it's first
season of racing and ranked in the top ten
several times.
"Swissauto has industry leading
powertrain design and development capabilities
and a strong understanding of turbo-charging
and high-performance engines," said Polaris
Chief Executive Officer, Scott Wine. "This
acquisition directly supports our stated objectives
to be the best in powersports and a global
market leader. "
Polaris acquired the powersports portion
of swissauto and will continue to operate
in the current swissauto facility located
in Burgdorf, Switzerland. The automotive division
ofswissauto was not involved in this acquisition
and will continue to operate autonomously.
About Polaris
With annual
2009 sales of $1.6 billion, Polaris designs,
engineers, manufactures and markets off-road
vehicles (ORVs), including all-terrain vehicles
(ATVs) and the Polaris RANGER(r), snowmobiles
and Victory Motorcycles(r) for recreational
and utility use. Polaris is a recognized leader
in the snowmobile industry, and one of the
largest manufacturers of ORVs in the world.
Victory Motorcycles, established in 1998 and
representing the first all-new American-made
motorcycle from a major company in nearly
60 years, are rapidly making impressive in-roads
into the cruiser and touring motorcycle marketplace.
Polaris also enhances the riding experience
with a complete line of Pure Polaris(r) apparel,
accessories and parts, available at Polaris
dealerships.
Polaris Industries Inc.
trades on the New York Stock Exchange under
the symbol "PII," and the Company
is included in the S&P Small-Cap 600 stock
price index.
Information about the
complete line of Polaris products, apparel
and vehicle accessories, is available from
authorized Polaris dealers or anytime from
the Polaris homepage at www.polarisindustries.com.