VIENNA, Austria (AP) — Yamaha will become the new owner of famed piano maker Boesendorfer, an Austrian bank said Thursday.
In a statement, BAWAG P.S.K. bank said it had reached an agreement with Yamaha over the sale of 100 percent of Boesendorfer shares. No price was specified.
Yamaha, based in Japan, issued a guarantee that it would maintain Boesendorfer's headquarters and production in Austria and secure the piano maker's future, the statement said.
BAWAG CEO Ewald Nowotny described Boesendorfer as a ''special company'' and appeared satisfied by the sales agreement.
''Therefore I am very pleased that with Yamaha, a strategic owner could be found, which is able to support the financial development of Boesendorfer and will continue the cultural heritage,'' Nowotny said.
Last year, Austria's trade union federation, Oesterreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund, or OeGB, sold BAWAG to a consortium headed by U.S. private equity fund Cerberus Capital Management.
A trial is currently under way in Vienna that hopes to shed light on a controversy that began in March 2006 with revelations that BAWAG, the country's fourth-largest bank, had lost more than euro1 billion in soured currency speculation deals in the Caribbean.
BAWAG has also been linked to collapsed U.S. commodities brokerage Refco Inc.