Luca M to replace Agnelli as Chairman of FIAT

Just saw it, you beat me to the punch... This could mean very good things for Fiat and, more importantly, Ferrari...

 

Yea it was posted in another thread about how some guy from FIAT quit when he found out that Luca M was the new chairman of FIAT, personally, if layoffs or such arent an issue, I think most should be happy, Ferrari is doing excellent right now.

 

Yeah, but they're still in debt... They're pouring hordes of money into F1 and anything they get out of it goes right back into Schumacher's paycheck... Ferrari makes more money off of logo copyright permission than they do off of automobile sales...

 

That is true about Schumachers deal, but aside from that, all the cars being sold are probably rapidly decreasing their debt, but I dont know what kind of debt they are in so I wont start argueing about something im not sure about

 

Guys the bigger and better message in this announcement is that with Luca in charge FIAT will be far more reluctant to sell one of their great assets, Ferrari! That should be the focus of our discussion. There is probably no one of his stature who better understands the inner workings of Fiat, including the polictical. He is also someone who has been closely aligned with the Agnelli family for three decades and is a highly regarded person in the Italian business community which lends comfort to the bankers. Imagine FIAT without him and Ferrari being spun off to VW, Ford, GM, etc. That is unthinkable. With regards to the cost of supporting their F1 program, who better than Luca to manage it from atop. This is great news. I'm curious as to others thoughts on this.

 

The Ferrari Maserati Group after-tax profits in 2003 were 1.7 milllion euros, compared to 21.6 million euros in 2002.

Ferrari sales were flat, Maserati sales were down, but market share increased.

Ferrari = 4238 vs 4236 in 2002
Maser = 2839 compared to 3300 in 2002

http://www.italiaspeed.com/2004/cars/ferrari/03/annual_report.html

I think Montezemolo has his work cut out for him, but he clearly has the track record to make improvements.

 

Thanks for the link Bryan. Very interesting year. What with an increase in capital spending of 53 million euros and the introduction of the 612 I'm not surprised at their results. However the unanswered question is how long will they commit to spending on Maserati. I have to believe that's their biggest cash drain with no return.

 

maseratis future depends on the new 4porte and coupe/spyder to be released soon. its a very good thing to see montezemolo in charge of fiat. he is very pro italian and wouldnt sell brands such as ferrari or maserati and alfa romeo to others, personally i would love to see a " super gruppo" made up of Ferrari-Maserati-Alfa Romeo

 

It was only a matter of time. No better person for the post.


Forza LDM,


Cavallini

 

I'm sure that's what will happen.
Alfa could enter the $30K-$70K Japanese, BMW, Porsche range, while Maser would handle the $80K to $120,000 range currently owned by Porsche's C4S and TT, Aston's AMV8 and DB9, and a few MBs. And Fiat could challenge everything from $15K-$30K, currently a very, very bland but very competitive market.
This would also allow Ferrari to produce more daring machines. They would not need to think of Porsche or Aston or MB.

Forza,


Cavallini

 

It would also be interesting to see what results they would have by expanding their dealer network for Maserati. I think they put to much pressure on their FNA dealers and also limit the appeal of Maserati.

 

I don't think this promotion for Luca M has anything to do with improving Ferrari or Maserati or F1. They are doing fine. Its to get Fiat SPA out of the gutter and start making some real money. If Luca spends 30 minutes a day thing about Ferrari or F1 he will not be doing what he is being paid to do.

The real question is who replaces him at Ferrari.

 

4,238 cars made last year. Maybe $50k profit per car???

How much is Schumacher's paycheck per year (best guess) ?

For you math wizzards... How many cars would Ferrari need to sell in 2003 before Schumacher was paid off? (just for fun if MS's paycheck came from car sales only)

 

On the BBC all day they've talked about this. Apparantly Fiat's stock took a dive when one of it's executives resigned after Luca's appointment. An analyst they had on seems to remain in question on his ability to handle a high volume production car company, citing his run of Maserati a few years back.....

 

Agreed, the question is who will replace him now at Ferrari. Not concerned because they ultimately have to report to Luca. This is a fantastic move for Luca and Ferrari, but most of all for Fiat. If anyone could turn it around it would be this man....it would be a shame to see Fiat end up like Jag,Lotus,or Lambo..;.couldn't imagine the brand of Ferrari being slutted around. Wish him great success !!

 

This was started earler today - take a look:

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19831

As you can see Jean Todt will be incharge of Ferrari.

 

Jean Todt has already been named managing director of Ferrari, there's another thread about it. The real secret is Amedeo Felisa being moved into the lead for product development. He's more responsible than anyone for the 360.

All the stallions are in good hands.

Forza,


Cavallini

 

In all of this change; where does Piero fit? I think he's head of Piaggio Aero, among others? Anything still to do with Ferrari?

 

Only that he holds a 10% stake in the Ferrari group.

 

This story continues to develop. Here's a last minute update:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/01/business/worldbusiness/01fiat.html

 

You are correct that Ferrari makes more on logo permissions than on automobile sales. Debt is not a bad thing you know. Most of the Fortune 500 companies have leveraged their debt to invest into the future. For example: when a company issues bonds it goes into the total debt of the company. Ferrari has debt financing from large financial corporations. It is a very stable company internally than what it looks on paper.

Luca will do a fine job with the FIAT group.

 

You have some great points. I think Fiat as a tuner brand stateside would be pretty neat in that $ range. Maser needs something though to a design stance to make them sexy enough to aim at that market, seem kinda bland styling wise to me, even compared to a bland Porsche design that has not evolved in 40 years, and the Aston, well design wise, nothing touches those looks not even the 5 series Fcar.

I thought they made a comment about him during the Monaco GP about him taking over road car design anyway. Perhaps this is not unexpected, but a bit premature.

 

That is correct, this is how it is all panning out.
Luca - Fiat
Jean Todt - Ferrari
Ross Brawn - Scuderia Ferrari