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Fiat agreed yesterday to sell 34 per cent of Ferrari, the sportscar maker, to investment bank Mediobanca for €775.2m ($766m). The troubled industrial group had planned an initial public offering for Ferrari late this year, but will now more rapidly receive cash that will help it meet financial targets set by its creditor banks. Mediobanca will seek to float the stake in the first half of next year, but can choose to wait up to another 12 months on hopes that Ferrari's value will increase. Should Mediobanca wait, Fiat will receive between 50 and 90 per cent of the difference between yesterday's sale price and the higher valuation at the time of the IPO. For Mediobanca, Italy's once-dominant investment and merchant bank, the deal would renew ties with Fiat that had been deeply frayed in recent years after decades of close co-operation. The offer values Ferrari at about €2.3bn, far higher than the €1.5bn-€2bn most analysts expected the carmaker to fetch. Mediobanca also said it has already placed 12.5 per cent of Ferrari with a syndicate of investors and is in talks for another 8 per cent. Ferrari last year had sales of €1.04bn and a net profit of €47m, but it expects to greatly increase both this year thanks to the introduction in the US of its Maserati sportscars. Click here to return to the Ferrari Happenings page.
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