Fiat managed to close the second quarter of 2009 with a trading profit of 310 million euro, bring down debt and increase liquidity, all under an unstable and difficult economic climate. In addition, Fiat declared it stands by its initial predictions and expects a trading profit of 1 billion euro and a net debt below 5 billion euro by the end of 2009.
“Group revenues were down 22.5% to EUR13.2bn in Q2. Year-on-year declines were experienced by all businesses, but with signs of improvement in certain market compared with Q1 levels”, Fiat said.
“During the quarter, Group net industrial debt decreased by more than €0.8 billion, mainly due to the reduction in working capital and disciplined capital expenditure. Group liquidity at 30 June 2009 was €6.4 billion, up €1.3 billion from the first quarter”, stated Fiat's press release.
Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) reported a 6.9 billion euro income from the delivery of 591,100 cars and light vehicles, which represents roughly an 11.1 percent decrease compared to the same period in 2008. The group blamed one third of the revenue decline on “unfavorable exchange rate movements”.
As expected, Fiat managed to record important sales in the small car segment, especially in countries where eco-incentives were thriving. Those markets include Italy (from 32.9% to 34.5%), Germany (from 3.4% to 5.4%) and France (from 4.3% to 4.6%). In Brazil, Fiat held its first position with 25.2% in a rising market.
From the entire Fiat Group, FGA succeeded in returning a trading profit of 155 million euro, compared to 243 million euro in Q2 2008.
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