Fiat Posts 4th Quarter Results, Profit Greater than Expected
Monday, January 25th, 2010As reported in Automotive News Fiat S.p.A. is the first of the major European automakers to post their Q4 results for 2009.
Apparently, December was a great month for car sales, because Fiat, which owns 20% of Chrysler Group had a trading profit of 488 million euros ($690 million) in the last quarter of 2009. According to a statement made by the company, revenues increased by 3.6% for a final total of 13.6 billion euros. This number represents earnings before interest, taxes, or one-time gains or costs.
CEO Sergio Marchionne had told reporters last week that he believed results would be better than the average of consensus estimates, which were pegged at around 460 million euros.
Looking to the future, representatives of the group have labeled 2010 “…a transitional and stabilization year…” and believe that with the exception of the core auto business, which depended on eco-incentives being reintroduced, business would grow, with trading profit for the year with incentives expected to be 1.5 billion euros, with a 3-6 percent growth in revenue to 52-53 billion euros. Without those incentives, Fiat trading profits for the auto and spare parts business will likely fall by 350-400 million euros.
Fiat also said it expects its net debt in 2010 to be under 5 billion euros in 2010. The 2009 end-debt was 4.4 billion euros.