Sports carmaker has been a loss maker since Fiat group bought it in 1990
July 24, 2007
BOLZANO, Italy -- Maserati announced today its first profit since it joined the Fiat family 17 years ago.
In the second quarter, Maserati showed a 1-million euro trading profit, up from 7-million euro loss during the same period last year.
Trading profit/loss is operating profit/loss before one-off items.
In the first half, Maserati broke even, which is a big improvement from its 26-million euro loss in the same period last year.
The carmaker expects the second half to be even better.
“This year, Maserati will definitely be in the black for the full year,” Maserati Sales Director Raffaele Fusilli told Automotive News Europe during the press introduction for the new Granturismo coupe here.
Maserati is confident now that it will report positive financial results this year because of the arrival of the Granturismo, a new four-seat premium coupe that goes on sale in Italy later this month and in the rest of continental Europe in September, and the success of the Quattroporte Automatica upper-premium sedan.
The arrival of a new automatic transmission in the Quattroporte has helped boost the car’s European sales 39.6 percent to 783 units through five months.
Maserati expects the two new cars to help increase 2007 unit sales to 7,600 from 5,600 in 2006.
Next year, Maserati plans to sell more than 8,000 cars.
Source:
by Luca Ciferri
Automotive News Europe
Photo:
The Maserati Granturismo, a new four-seat premium coupe that goes on sale in Italy later this month and in the rest of continental Europe in September
