Maserati turned over to Fiat Auto division | Page 2 | FerrariChat

Maserati turned over to Fiat Auto division

Discussion in 'Maserati' started by dretceterini, Feb 16, 2005.

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  1. ghost

    ghost F1 World Champ
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    Dec 10, 2003
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    Can you expand upon this Scott. I'm curious to get a sense of what prices are like for these cars. Experience on new or pre-owned M's would be interesting fodder.
     
  2. DMC

    DMC Formula 3

    Nov 15, 2002
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    Dean
    WSJ has a good summary too:

    Fiat to Buy Maserati Brand
    To Expand Alfa Romeo

    By CHRISTOPHER EMSDEN
    DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
    February 16, 2005 1:05 p.m.

    MILAN – Fiat SpA said Wednesday it will buy the Maserati sports-car brand in a bid to help expand its premium Alfa Romeo brand.

    Fiat said it will buy Maserati from Ferrari SpA, the luxury-car maker in which it owns a 56% stake. Fiat, based in Turin, Italy, declined to give details about the financial terms of the deal. The company said it expects Alfa Romeo to benefit from close technological and commercial ties with Maserati.

    Fiat's unprofitable car division, Fiat Auto, owns the Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia brands. However, Fiat, not Fiat Auto, is buying Maserati, spurring speculation that the Italian holding company is planning to restructure its car operations to allow greater focus on the high-end brands.

    "This operation is essential for the future development of Alfa Romeo," said Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne.

    Mr. Marchionne, who brokered a divorce from General Motors Corp. last weekend, has said it is imperative that Fiat work to differentiate its brands.

    Maserati, founded in 1914 and acquired by Fiat in 1993, is unprofitable due to research-and-development costs and other investments in resurrecting the brand.

    Those costs have dented profitability at Ferrari, which took ownership of the Maserati brand in 1999. Selling Maserati may improve Ferrari's finances and make an initial public offering of the unit attractive, although Fiat Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said as recently as last Sunday that no Ferrari IPO is imminent.

    Maserati sold 4,600 cars last year, said Mr. di Montezemolo, who is also chairman of Ferrari.

    Alfa Romeo sells about 180,000 vehicles a year. Such a small number makes it necessary to seek joint ventures to defray investments, many automotive analysts say. Maserati sells about a third of its vehicles in North America, where Alfa Romeo isn't present, suggesting that Fiat may be able to improve distribution range for higher-margin products.

    Fiat Auto had an operating loss of just below €1 billion ($1.3 billion) in 2003, and is expected to post a loss of about €800 million for 2004. The unit is targeting to break even on an operating level in 2006.

    Fiat will launch a new version of its best-selling Fiat Punto in the second half of 2005, and analysts say its success is crucial. The Italian company known for its low-cost small cars will gain a new attraction with the addition of Maserati to its portfolio, analysts say.

    The acquisition also adds further heft to Fiat's management ranks.

    It brings Martin Leach, Maserati's chief executive and formerly the head of Ford Motor Co.'s European operations, into the Fiat fold.

    Barring further changes, Mr. Leach, who said Maserati should post an operating profit in 2007, will now work closely with Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, the former head of Rolls-Royce, whom Fiat brought in to head the Alfa Romeo business late last year.

    Fiat shares closed down 2.8% at €5.96 Wednesday in Milan in the wake of poor European auto-sales figures for the company.
     
  3. WILLIAM H

    WILLIAM H Three Time F1 World Champ

    Nov 1, 2003
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    GM just put into effect a clause to get them out of their contract with FIAT. GM will pay FIAT over 1 billion Euros for this option. That should help FIAT a lot more than a Ferrari IPO
     
  4. scott61

    scott61 F1 Rookie

    Feb 11, 2004
    2,606
    North of Boston
    For my car ordered exactly the way I wanted listed a bit over 100,000 and paid 87,000. After paying mostly MSRP for past few cars this was a pleasant surprise
     
  5. jakermc

    jakermc Formula 3
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    Jan 17, 2004
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    Yeah, this strategy looks well thought out.
     
  6. dretceterini

    dretceterini F1 Veteran

    Apr 28, 2004
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    There have been quite a few year or two old Masers on ebay...
     
  7. DGS

    DGS Six Time F1 World Champ
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    As opposed to the novelty of the few produced under Citroen, or Chrysler, or ... ?

    Fiat is going to use the Flying Dutchman of the auto industry to prop up Alfa? What's wrong with that picture?

    Does this mean that Masers are going to become FWD commuter cars, too?

    Where's the next Nicolo Romeo when you need him? Somebody needs to take these classic racing marques away from the suits. :(

    HEY! Why doesn't Schumi buy Alfa/Maser? Think he could do for the street car division what he did for the Ferrari race team? ;)
     
  8. masergt

    masergt Rookie

    Jan 5, 2004
    17
    from http://www.maserati.com

    Maserati: Transfer Of Ownership From Ferrari To Fiat

    02/16/2005 Turin

    Fiat announces that the ownership of Maserati, currently wholly owned by Ferrari, will be transferred as soon as practicable to Fiat.

    The move forsees that Alfa Romeo and Maserati will co-operate closely technically and commercially – particularly in important international markets.

    Maserati will, however, continue its co-operation with Ferrari – especially in industrial, technical, engine and sales network terms – which has helped re-vitalise the marque.

    “This is a significant step forward for both Maserati and Alfa Romeo. The synergies between the two marques will bring benefits to both and will allow us to strengthen our portfolio offering in the sports car market” said Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Chairman of Fiat and of Ferrari.

    “Maserati is now at a significant point in its development. In 2004 it achieved substantial sales growth to 4,600 cars and received tremendously positive international acclaim of its Quattroporte model.”

    “This move is essential to the future development of Alfa Romeo” said Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat. “We believe that as part of the re-launch of Fiat Auto, we need to devote great attention to the distinctiveness of our brands. The technical and commercial collaboration between Maserati and Alfa Romeo will give the latter the necessary impetus to re-establish itself as a leading contender in its segment and to expand its presence in international markets, as has occurred for Maserati.”
     
  9. bretm

    bretm F1 Rookie

    Feb 1, 2001
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    Interesting read compliments of tcc...

    [/url]http://www.thecarconnection.com/index.asp?article=8142&sid=192&n=156[/url]
     
  10. ghost

    ghost F1 World Champ
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  11. jm2

    jm2 F1 World Champ
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    Today's Bloomberg has an article "Fiat to beef up lineup by taking over Maserati"
     
  12. maranelloman

    maranelloman Guest


    Uh-oh.....
     
  13. 410SA

    410SA F1 Veteran

    Nov 2, 2003
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    This whole deal, including the $2 billion payout by GM is designed to extricate Fiat Auto from the mud without splattering the crown Jewel (Ferrari) in the process.

    Fiat Spa, the holding company of Fiat Auto and several other non automotive concerns like Club Med and papermills, utilities, publishing etc, needs to get cash to pay down its nearly $5 billion of debt. It currently owns around 50 % of Ferrari Maserati group, with the balance being held by a bank syndicate called Mediobanca (38%) and Piero (don't call me Lardi!) Ferrari (10%). Maserati, despite the capital infusion and the relatively high profile is losing money and will preclude the Ferrari lenders from ever getting their money back. Spinning Mas off to Fiat Auto frees up Ferrari to go public and generate some very badly needed cash into Fiat Spa from the proceeds of selling a chunk of their ownership in Ferrari to the public. This is an IPO to generate cash for the current shareholders - not a public offering to raise working capital for Ferrari. It is also a way to repay Montezemolo for single handedly bringing Ferrari back from the dead over the past 15 years.
    Ownership issues aside, the current manufacturing and marketing cooperation between Ferrari and Maserati will continue on a service provider basis, for fees, rather than as an integrated subsidiary.

    Maserati customers will not notice anything different in the marketplace.
     
  14. Texas Forever

    Texas Forever Seven Time F1 World Champ
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    Clearly, I agree 100%. See -- http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49054

    If they had to do it over again, would exisitng Ferrari dealers fork over $1m to open a Maser shop? Probably not.

    But seeing how they have already done so, I'm guessing that almost every dealer will keep their shop. After all, the Q-Port is selling over sticker. The bugs have been worked out of the coupe and spyder. Moreover, the Grandsport goes like stink.

    Dr "Formerly Known as Who" Maser
     
  15. BusDriver

    BusDriver Formula Junior

    Mar 30, 2004
    416
    Northeast USA

    Hi Alex,

    Thanks for the insightful comments. If I may add to that...

    This transaction is mostly an accounting trick.

    This will make Ferrari suddenly profitable retroactively. My guess is that, as part of its IPO filing, Ferrari will restate past earnings, now without the Maserati-related R & D expenses. So, it will be a healthy IPO for Ferrari as it will now appear to be *very* profitable the last few years.

    The Maserati related R & D expenses will now be assigned to Fiat Auto retroactively and will hardly make a difference to Fiat Auto's massively negative historical earnings.

    Keep in mind, that Ferraris and Maseratis use the same paint shop, the same engine shop, and same R & D (engines, F1 gearbox, Skyhook etc). They just have separate assembly lines.

    Of course, all this is just my opinion.

    - Jon
     
  16. dave_fonz_164

    dave_fonz_164 Formula 3

    Mar 11, 2004
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    after inspecting the maserati qp at the dealer, i must say maserati is on the rite track!
     
  17. dretceterini

    dretceterini F1 Veteran

    Apr 28, 2004
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    An IPO isn't going to change anything. The same people will still be in charge. As far as Alfa coming tio the US, the GM money and an IPO will bring nowhere near enough to set up a proper dealer, service, and parts network.
     
  18. sandersja

    sandersja Formula Junior

    Jan 16, 2003
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    John Sanders
    And what do you think will happen to the Brainiac at GM who put together the deal with Fiat that just cost them $2B to bail out of?

    Given that its GM, I'm guessing promotion/bonus rather than getting fired.
     
  19. scott61

    scott61 F1 Rookie

    Feb 11, 2004
    2,606
    North of Boston
    Got this e-mail back from my dealer after I sent one last week asking how things will change. Not quite sure what she means by "The car will still be produced 100% by Ferrari"


    Ciao Scott

    My name is Natalia Escallon and after Nick got promoted to GM, I took over for him as Maserati Sales Manager. With Fiat taking over financially, everything stays the same. Your warranty will not be affected at all. The car will still be produced 100% by Ferrari. The only thing it changes is who gets paid at the end of the day. IF you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to email back or call the office at 617.559.0123. It’s good to hear the voice of a happy Maserati customer!!!

    Natalia

    Natalia Escallon

    Sales Manager

    Ferrari/Maserati
     

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