UPDATE 2-Pininfarina sticks to plan, cuts 2008 revs f’cast
August 13th, 2008 | by admin |(Adds first-half results, 2008 forecast, share price)
By Gilles Castonguay
MILAN, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Pininfarina, the Italian designer of Ferrari andother cars, is sticking to its restructuring plan after naming Paolo Pininfarinaas chairman following his brother’s death last week.
Pininfarina (PNNI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), whose plan aims to revive its struggling business,also posted on Tuesday a higher core profit for the first half of the yeardespite a drop in production value, or net revenues plus inventories.
But it cut its production value forecast for the year as the entire carsector is suffering from a drop in sales. Pininfarina makes limited productionruns of specific models for car makers like Ford (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Volvo (VOLVb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) andAlfa Romeo.
The death of Chairman and Chief Executive Andrea Pininfarina in a trafficaccident on Aug. 7 had incited market speculation that the company’s ownershipcould change further than had been planned under the restructuring.
Under the plan, the founding family of the same name aims to reduce itsstake to about 30 percent from 55 percent by means of a capital increase thatwill allow a select group of investors such as French financier Vincent Bolloreto become shareholders.
The family wants to raise 100 million euros ($148.9 million) to finance ajoint venture with Bollore to develop an electric car, a project that is pivotalto Pininfarina’s revival.
The shares ended down 2.22 percent at 7.44 euros on Tuesday, giving thecompany a market capitalisation of about 69.4 million euros.
