Fiat to Spin off Ferrari

i'm crazy.................but i'm not stupid

 

The Germans thought like they always do. They are better and know more than everyone. Well guess what. They got the education of their life. $36 million if I remember. They also went into the class 8 truck business and flat lost their A. Under priced everyone by placing a lease end value. Recession killed them. They put a lot of old mfg. out. Ended with about 75% of the market.

 

How will Ferrari meet fleet emissions without Fiat/Chrysler sales? They'll end up re badging a crummy little Toyota with a Ferrari badge (as did Aston Martin).

 

Thank you for sharing this. The two things that jumped out at me are:

1. SM saying Ferrari is like a book. A far cry from LDM's saying Ferrari is a dream...


2. the letter is sent from London...

SM's time horizon is 4 years. After that he's gone. And what is Ferrari left with? Time will tell. But I suspect the answer is: a mess.

 

Good point. Might be the same crap Aston Martin has to deal with - as an example.

But seriously, they will be going mainly turbo for most of the cars, so they should be able to do it. California T, 458 Turbo coming...it's already happening.

 

Shouldn't this thread be merged with the other thread on this exact same topic?

 

Maybe the Japanese will buy Ferrari and we could have reliable cars to drive coast to coast.

 

It wouldn't be a proper Ferrari without all the reliability adventures though would it?

How many people have you met, and how many friends have you made (in person and on the internet), purely due to the lack of Ferrari reliability? (either your cars or theirs?)

Just think, if you drove from coast to coast in total reliability, then:

1) You'd hardly talk to anyone throughout the trip.
2) You wouldn't have much to talk about to those you did speak to!

Look at Ernies thread about his: " 2200 miles across the USA in my 348".

How entertaining would that thread have been if he hadn't had a few issues along the way?

Because of some reliability issues, that trip went from being a simple journey, to being a proper adventure!

 

And sorry, Bently won their class at Le Mans with an Audi/Lola inspired chassis. Not the chunky luxury tanks of today or the flat radiator fendered jobs of the 20s. I just hope Ferrari doesn't have corporate culture issues that even LDM couldn't fix. I doubt it. A short horizon golden parachute accountant may go the same way as Danny Bahar who bailed from Ferrari for Lotus and treated engineer automotive journalists like trash. He's not at Lotus now either.

 

It's a boat anchor. It has been to anyone who has owned it since the late 70's,

Fiat is bleeding money in the US. Alfa is delayed and has no products coming for years. Maserati will not even get close to selling 75K Guibli's a year. Jeep is Jeep.

They need the money from the only cash cow they have -- Ferrari.

 

And that highlights how deep in the ***** they really are. You don't sell off the only thing making $'s for you ... they should sell off the thing that is bleeding the money!
Pete

 

What if one day Ferrari buys Fiat? Almost like Porsche did with VW tricking so many Hedge funds on short positions iirc.

 

Speaking of hedge funds, THAT is my biggest fear. That some private equity/hedge fund juggernaut like Starwood Capital (who bought Baccarat and is parlaying it into a hotel chain) or Blackstone buys the company, more deeply cleaves it into separate branding, racing, and engine-building divisions, and whores them out to utter exhaustion. Ferrari tuning services or partnerships for lesser marques, SUVs and down-market cars, prancing horses on condom wrappers, bottled water, chewing gum, etc., selling off the factory's historic and museum inventory to boost capital reserves, etc.

And in a few years, they can go raise another opportunity fund from institutional investors because they shredded the company but gave their investors an outstanding IRR.

My runner-up SECOND worst fear is that some oligarch or sheik with 10 rolls royces and at least one each of every exotic car from the last decade buys it as their personal status symbol play toy, or - worse yet - for their twenty-something kids to add to their 10 bejeweled rolls royces as a play toy. New money devoid of taste that mistakes materialism for sophistication and connoisseurship.

But for the likes of a handful of collectors like Stroll or Glickenhaus, etc., few of the true Ferrari connoisseurs who most deeply understand the brand and its underlying passion also have the means of pursuing this acquisition AND the actual vision to run the company and take it to the next level. Corporatization ruins everything.

There. My first business/political rant on f-chat. These are the issues that keep me up at night

 

The Boxsturd-ization of Ferrari begins! Worked for the Germans, at least financially.

 

5% of Ferrari is already owned by the Mubadala Development Company. Fiat will still own 75% of Ferrari at the end of this offering. Now the real issue is if Fiat sells it's majority holdings and the company loses it's mystique and starts building SUVs based on the Q5 platform. What concerns me about this, is the "independence" Ferrari will achieve. The near term concern is how will Ferrari cope with the CAFE standards?

 

Maybe the Agnelli family will separate from FCA. Today, they will lose Ferrari, if they sell their stake in FCA. After the spinn off Exor will hold 25,54% of Ferrari and Piero Ferrari will have 10% and Mubadala 5%. They can use their cash after selling FCA shares to buy more Ferrari shares.
There was an article in summer in german manager magazin that Piech/Porsche talks with Agnellis to buy FCA without Ferrari. The talks broke because of the different thoughts about the value of Ferrari and FCA
This problem will be solved with both corporates beeing listed.


Volkswagen-Großaktionär Piech interessiert an Fiat-Übernahme - manager magazin

 

I own a Japanese car and is great and reliable. I will buy another. But if the Japanese bought Ferrari it makes me want to vomit.



Ago

 

There are worse alternatives. How about Tata? Fe-curry-rrari

 

good post.

the gates to the kingdom have been unlocked...

 

http://www.media-server.com/m/p/9ij55e4p
Gets interesting 20 minutes in and better at the Q&A

 

I'm shocked but not surprised. The entire purpose of a public Company is to grow and increase profits. By this sweet-talking b s letter Marchione is tacitly stating that Ferrari SpA must grow and there is only one way to do that, increase production and dramatically change the culture of Ferrari, precisely the difference between Luca, Marchione, John Elkann and the FCA Board, and Luca's sole reason for choosing to leave. I would love to have a candid discussion with Piero about the entire sequence of events.

Not good news for serious and thoughtful tifosi.

 

Ferrari and Lamborghini under the same roof would be scrutinized by the EU Competition (anti-trust to us) boys.

 

Now that the shares are in play a range of outcomes is possible. Few of them good.
It was obvious that Luca's leaving meant a drastic rethinking of the brand and had nothing to do with F1.

Are their numbers big enough to warrant that?

 

David, I'm not an anti-trust law expert, but I believe that what would be in question is not the size but the market in which companies compete. One could make an argument that this actual market comprises only Ferrari and Lamborghini, McLaren being perhaps too small to consider. Am I omitting anyone?