A long road ahead

27 February 2004

The ailing car manufacturer has made some progress in a pretty dire environment. But this is only the beginning. Yet Fiat s shares, which rose 10% over the last month, already discount that the relaunch plan will deliver on its promises.

This content is for Subscribers only

Context News

Fiat said that in the fourth quarter of 2003, group revenues fell 15% to E12.7bn and operating profits rose to E142m, from E3m the year before. The Italian car manufacturer said it had cut E1bn out of its overheads over the full year period. Net debt fell from E3.8bn to E3bn, and Fiat said it had liquidity amounting to E7bn.

Revenues at the automobile division stemmed their decline in the fourth quarter, coming in flat on the year before. This is slightly ahead of expectations, and benefited from the introduction of four new models. The operating loss for the period was almost halved from E180m to E97m. Over the full year, automobile revenues declined by 9.6% and unit sales by 8.8%. Fiat suffered from contracting car demand in Italy and Western Europe, and from the limited range of products it had available until the launches in the second half of the year.

Context News

Email a friend

Please complete the form below.

Required fields *