Sabine Blumel, an analyst from Creative Global Investments, told in an interview with just-auto.com she expects Fiat Group to record 190 million euro trading profit for the second quarter of 2009 after a 30 million euro loss for the first quarter.
“The result will be driven by improvements at all core divisions, with the exception of trucks. We expect FGA, the auto division, to swing to profit - it has been a main beneficiary of incentive programmes in Europe, thanks to its A-segment cars 500 and Panda that are both assembled in Poland where a weaker zloty has protected FGA's margins despite its aggressive pricing policy aimed at gaining market share”, declared Sabine Blumel.
According to Reuters, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne acknowledged this year to be the most difficult he has ever faced, but still predicts a trading profit of more than 1 billion euro (1.4 billion USD) with debt being cut below 5 billion euro.
“The funding situation is an ongoing concern, particularly as the benefits they've seen in Q2 from the incentives are not sustainable", said Michael Tyndall, industry specialist at Nomura International.
While figures for the mass-market car segment looked very good, the truck and commercial vehicles segment registered very few sales. “Total European (truck) sales will be down below the 1993 recession trough, achieving in a single year the full downturn seen in 1990-93," Bank of America/Merrill Lynch analysts said.
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